INTERVIURI

[iLL:WiLL]

Boot Camp Cllik: F*ck the Dumb Sh*t


Rap is not rocket science. You hear a beat, rap to it, and put it out to the clients. Might not seem that easy, but the business is where the confusion comes from. Sean Price of BBC is against the useless bull and just makes music that has the people, as E-40 would say, ??€?Go dumb.??€? Simply and plain, providing you wit hot tracks is the game. Boot Camp Clik is a group that rides the line between being underground and having some mainstream joints. They argue about the ideas, but it??€�s not like Shaq and Kobe going at each other for points. The click is intact, even with guys doing solo tracks. Guys do their thing, but they always come back. Sometimes the group touches Top 40 and they continue on accordingly. Love for the music seems to be the cause, at least that??€�s the impression that Sean gives. Openly saying that he lives in ??€?his own bubble,??€? he still feels that the rap game is in trouble. See why??€¦..

Yo, what's good wit you?

Sean Price: Listen, listen, listen.
(Plays some music from Jesus Price Superstar album.)
Sean Price: That's that Jesus shit right there.

What other things you got going on besides the music? A lot of guys are going into fashion and shit like that.

Sean Price: Nah, you know what I like other nigga??€�s clothes. Besides I think that shit is corny. It's hot but its corny; I'm a customer. I rather cop.

So you not too big on fashion, huh?

Sean Price: Nah, but don't get it twisted, my sneaker game is incredible.

Why haven't you been approached for shoes deals?

Sean Price: I don't know; cuz we Boot and Timberland ain't giving no rapper a shoe deal. I don't think (shoe companies) hate me, but they just see the name and think we don't wear shoes. But trust me, my sneaker game is impeccable....(to himself) I'm on some Mike Tyson shit right now...It's imaculate, it's beautiful, it's outta this world.

Nikes or Reebox?

Sean Price: Both, I love both, but I got more Nikes than anything. Some shoes have my pinky toe knuckle throbbing sometime. Oh, yeah Adidas too. Nikes and Adidas, you can't go wrong wit those.

What's the toughest aspect about being in a group and getting shit done?

Sean Price: Working on a BCC album, that's eight MC's, you know sometime you gotta agree to disagree. That's why certain songs some people ain't on em. But, at the end of the day, it's all good.

How do you decide or debate over the music?

Sean Price: Sometimes we just bark on it. We get our point across it might be a lot of yelling, cracking jokes, but we say what we got to say. Have a little shouting match, whatever, whatever, but it's all music; nothing personal.

Lot of Shaq and Kobe going on over there?

Sean Price: Nah, nah, it be like, "I got this idea;" and somebody would like," Get the fuck outta here." We just go back and forth a little bit, but nothing physical or shit like that. We've together too long for some shit like that to go down.

When it come to the label or management; do you feel like your project is getting enough attention?

Sean Price: You know what, you ask any artist that and they'll say no or have some type of feeling like that. That sounds like one those generic ass, bullshit questions. Not to disrespect your questions or nothing like that; but, no artist, no artist, is going feel like they getting enough. Me, I'ma get keep it real; I don't know if I can blame my marketing and promotion. It's just is what it is; you make the record and give it to the company and hope it pop.

You seem a little more opinionated talking about the label than most artist. You know, they usually give you some generic answer unless they just got released or something like that...

Sean Price: Nah, that's just the game, b. You understand; it's just is what it is. I just learned to accept that and try to make the best of it.

Do you see a lot of artists going on tirades at the offices, like Ice Cube, when they don't get what they want and what they feel they deserve?

Sean Price: Nah, we don't do that. I've heard of those horror stories, but Sean Price don't do that. Boot Camp don't do that.

The underground success and following you have is there; realistically, do you feel the mainstream success is coming sometime soon?

Sean Price: I hope, everybody wants that. Every once in a while we manage to get a record on the charts. A lot of underground dudes ain't doing that. You hear me on Hot 97, before Monkey Bars came out I had a record with Destiny's Child that was getting heavy rotation in a few states. That allows me to go to the big stations and talk about my underground album. I touch the mainstream every now and then.

Do you feel like you need to tailor your music towards Top 40?

Sean Price: Nah, I don't give a fuck about that shit. I hear a beat and rap. What I write is what I write.

Why don't the media shows invite the Commons, Talib's, or Mos Def's to the show when they feel the need to attack Hip-Hop?

Sean Price: They only wanna show one side. For every gangster rapper there's a thoughtful rapper. They only go show that one side of the wild nigga shit. Even the gangster rappers that's supposed to be negative are entrepreneurs; so how bad are they? Personally, I don't give a fuck; I live in my own little bubble. Who cares?

So you stay away from the news and the daily events?

Sean Price: Don't get it twisted, I read the paper and all of that. I've developed a certain "I don't give a fuckness" about things because the shit will stress you the fuck out. I used to be one of those dudes really in all that kinda shit... I realized that I would drive myself crazy and developed this bubble to maintain my mental health.

Since you're in a group so large, how do you approach collabos?

Sean Price: A lot of guys are cool. You can call some up and ask and they'll do it. You pay anybody they'll rhyme on yo shit. I ain't saying, niggas ain't cool, but it's business. Nobody??€�s your friend. Boot Click, we friends, but these rap dudes are just rap dudes.

How about beef on wax?

Sean Price: It's Hip-Hop, you know. If you got beef with somebody, ain't no records being made. I've been in real beef, ain't no talking. There's knife work, throwing hands, or gunplay.

Who's the best MC right now?

Sean Price: Nobody, I think everybody needs to step they bars up. Me too, I'm not saying I'm the best, but I just saying, you know. I'm not gonna say no names cuz I ain't no disrespectful dude, but the dude I thought was the best rapper needs to step up his bars. That's all I'm saying.

Can I get a region or something?

Sean Price: Shit, he a rapper. My favorite rapper, step yo game up. (The music) is fucking disgusting right now.

Man, you gotta give me something?

Sean Price: Aaaaaahhh....You won't get it from me, yo. It's my favorite rapper; I'm hurt by the way he sound right now. I can't say his name and he'll be like, "Fuck you, nigga." That might be the record he get nice on. I'll be mad at me cuz it's my favorite rapper and he get back nice dissing me. I'll have to play the record and love and hate it at the same time. (laughs) This shit might bring his swagger back.

[iLL:WiLL]

Lord Jamar: Each One, Teach One


The 5% Album is, arguably, one the most important Hip-Hop albums to grace the industry since the inception of rap. Brand Nubian front-man, Lord Jamar, began his ascension in music during the 'Golden Era' of the art form. It was a time when artists such as The World Famous Supreme Team, Just-Ice, Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, Poor Righteous Teachers, and later, Wu Tang Clan [every member], Digable Planets, and Busta Rhymes, also practitioners of the 5% teachings, ruled the culture. It is only fitting to let the man, himself, explain in great detail the history, growth, effect, and ideologies that detail the principles of this very detrimental movement...

Now since both of your former group-mates, Sadat X and Grand Puba, have released a few solo albums, apiece, during their hiatus' from Brand Nubian -- Why have you opted to wait so long to join them with an individual endeavor??

Lord Jamar: I didn??€�t feel like I had a complete body of work that I felt comfortable with putting out. I had songs completed throughout the years, a few hits (but) I was doing other things (like) acting, (finding & producing) Dead Prez. Everytime I started to do my solo project, things would come to me -- Different projects.

Even furthermore -- At what point did you actually decide that you were interested in pursuing a solo career?? And, will this new release, in any way, signify the group's ultimate demise??

LJ: No, this does not signify the groups??€� demise, (but) I have always been interested in a solo career. I started as a solo artist.

What specifically gravitated you towards the teachings of the Five Percent Nation??

LJ: There are more rappers in the Five Percent Nation, than (there are ) in Minister Louis Farrakhan's Nation of Islam [NOI], because the NOI doesn't lend itself to Hip-Hop. The NOI is a very structured and rigid organization. Hip-Hop is very loose, and free. The two don't compliment each other. Where-as the Five Percent Nation is more ??€?In the street,??€� and is already respected, and accepted by the Hip-Hop generation. The Five Percent Nation also isn??€�t anything to do with straight Islam. I know of a few rappers who are straight Muslim, but they don??€�t outnumber those in the Five Percent Nation. I am not an oppressor of Muslims. I have no fear of them. We in the N.G.E. [Nation of Gods and Earths a.k.a. The 5 Percenters] are not Muslims. To be a Muslim is to submit to the will of Allah, and practice the religion of Islam. To be a member of the N.G.E. is to come in the name of Allah, and to study I.S.L.A.M, which stands for I S.elf L.ord A.nd M.aster. See, in the Five Percent Nation, each man is the sole controller of his own universe. If you're the God of your universe, you set up your own laws. The 5% message has something for everyone that wants to learn. It's true this nation was started to empower poor black youth, but the lessons taught are ones we can all use.
The 5% Album is, arguably, one the most important Hip-Hop albums to grace the industry since the inception of rap. Brand Nubian front-man, Lord Jamar, began his ascension in music during the 'Golden Era' of the art form. It was a time when artists such as The World Famous Supreme Team, Just-Ice, Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, Poor Righteous Teachers, and later, Wu Tang Clan [every member], Digable Planets, and Busta Rhymes, also practitioners of the 5% teachings, ruled the culture. It is only fitting to let the man, himself, explain in great detail the history, growth, effect, and ideologies that detail the principles of this very detrimental movement...

Now since both of your former group-mates, Sadat X and Grand Puba, have released a few solo albums, apiece, during their hiatus' from Brand Nubian -- Why have you opted to wait so long to join them with an individual endeavor??

Lord Jamar: I didn??€�t feel like I had a complete body of work that I felt comfortable with putting out. I had songs completed throughout the years, a few hits (but) I was doing other things (like) acting, (finding & producing) Dead Prez. Everytime I started to do my solo project, things would come to me -- Different projects.

Even furthermore -- At what point did you actually decide that you were interested in pursuing a solo career?? And, will this new release, in any way, signify the group's ultimate demise??

LJ: No, this does not signify the groups??€� demise, (but) I have always been interested in a solo career. I started as a solo artist.

What specifically gravitated you towards the teachings of the Five Percent Nation??

LJ: There are more rappers in the Five Percent Nation, than (there are ) in Minister Louis Farrakhan's Nation of Islam [NOI], because the NOI doesn't lend itself to Hip-Hop. The NOI is a very structured and rigid organization. Hip-Hop is very loose, and free. The two don't compliment each other. Where-as the Five Percent Nation is more ??€?In the street,??€� and is already respected, and accepted by the Hip-Hop generation. The Five Percent Nation also isn??€�t anything to do with straight Islam. I know of a few rappers who are straight Muslim, but they don??€�t outnumber those in the Five Percent Nation. I am not an oppressor of Muslims. I have no fear of them. We in the N.G.E. [Nation of Gods and Earths a.k.a. The 5 Percenters] are not Muslims. To be a Muslim is to submit to the will of Allah, and practice the religion of Islam. To be a member of the N.G.E. is to come in the name of Allah, and to study I.S.L.A.M, which stands for I S.elf L.ord A.nd M.aster. See, in the Five Percent Nation, each man is the sole controller of his own universe. If you're the God of your universe, you set up your own laws. The 5% message has something for everyone that wants to learn. It's true this nation was started to empower poor black youth, but the lessons taught are ones we can all use.

With your forthcoming debut you decided to go with a concept album versus a more mainstream set -- Tell what prompted your decision to do so??

LJ: I feel you should speak on what you should know. This [Knowledge of Self] is what I have been dealing with for the last 23 years. I have never made mainstream music.

For someone who has yet to hear The 5% Album -- How would you describe or define the overall vibe and sound of this project??

LJ: Hard Body...God Body.

It's titled, simply, The 5% Album -- What does this name represent to, and for, you??

LJ: I represent my Nation [Nation of Gods and Earths]. I represent truth and power.

How long has it actually been in the making??

LJ: One year.

How were you able to assemble such an ill team of guest collaborators??

LJ: As far as Wu-Tang, through my man (and A&R) Dreddy Kruger, and everyone else is my family.

How do you feel that this new project measures up to your previous group [Brand Nubian] efforts??

LJ: It measures quite well. I personally think it is one of the greatest things I have ever done.

Sonically, how would you say it either differs and/or compares to those same earlier releases?

LJ: Sonically, it is as good, or better, than all of my other projects. I learned from each album, and applied my experience. An example would be with the song, 'Study Your Lessons,' (it) is the knowledge I have obtained from The Everything is Everything [sans Puba] album, as far as the live instruments, the production, etcetera.

Let's take it back to your very early beginnings...Tell me your entire back-story -- How did it all begin for Lord Jamar??

LJ: (Well, I was always) listening to my mom??€�s 45??€�s. I (first) started (out) as a deejay.Then, I got into emcee-ing. As a deejay, I was into scratching, cutting, tricks and spinning behind my back. I was 14 or 15 years old -- I was nasty.

Growing up in New Rochelle, New York -- Who were your strongest musical influences??

LJ: James Brown, Jackson 5, Marvin Gaye. My moms use to listen to a lot of Country, too -- Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson. I grew up listening to Bambaataa, Cold Crush (Brothers), Treacherous Three, (Grandmaster Flash & the) Furious Five.

At what point did choose music as your lifelong profession??

LJ: When I was 17 years old, I met Daryl C from the (legendary)Crash Crew. He was feeling me, and he was the first to make me feel I was nice enough to make a record. I always knew that, but he validated it for me. Although I already knew (Grand) Puba, it was around the same time when he approached me to say he wanted to work with me after hearing me rhyme at a block party. It was the time in my life that I decided to clean my life up to pursue my goal of music.

What string of events led to your first recording contract with Elektra Records??

LJ: Puba had made a record prior as (a member of) the Master of Ceremonies. We did not have a name, or demo, and Puba knew Dante' Ross (of the Simulated Dummies). (That was) when he was still at Tommy Boy (Records). After spending a lot time in our man??€�s studio, listening to a bunch of people record, we finally got a chance to record a demo. We finally made one song, and Dante' loved it. He told us he was leaving Tommy Boy to go to Elektra. He said he loved the song, but we still needed a name. After playing with many different ideas, we came up with Brand Nubian -- Then we were the first group he signed at Elektra.

Where did the name Lord Jamar actually derive from??

LJ: It derived from me getting knowledge of myself. When you first come into the knowledge, you choose a righteous name and you get rid of your slave name. Lord Jamar is actually my name, not just a MC name.

Lyrically, where do you draw your inspiration(s) from??

LJ: My inspiration comes from the mood of the beat. (It) tells me what the song is about. Or, if the beat has a vocal sample, it will tell me what the song??€�s about. I may have an idea already.

What do you feel has been, and will continue to be, the key to your success??

LJ: Staying true to who I am, (and) not trying to do something that I know that is not me. Hip-Hop is about real shit. When people see that you are real, you will always have a place in their heart. The love of Hip-Hop (will sustain me), and the belief that there is a segment of the population that wants to hear what I have to say.

Why do you feel that the masses aren't seeing more relevant emcees, like yourself, from the that 'Golden Age' of Hip-Hop??

LJ: I am not sure that a lot of brothers are staying sharp enough to be able to put anything out right now. And, the way the market is now, a lot of people who were successful then, will not be successful now.

With projects such as The 5% Album -- Do you think that we, as a whole, will begin to see more and more of these artists emerge from obscurity?

LJ: First of all I am not trying to represent any segment of Hip-Hop. I am not here to represent all of the 'Golden Age' rappers. I am timeless. I have no beginning or ending -- I am here to represent my Nation.

I know, as of late, you've been doing your Thespian thing with appearances on Oz, Law & Order, Third Watch, and, most recently, Sopranos -- Will you continue to expand in this arena?

LJ: Yes, I plan to continue acting. I have an indie film coming out soon called They're Just My Friends. And, I am in negotiations for a few more projects.

On a more serious note -- Are happy with the current state of Hip-Hop music that we know of today??

LJ: No, it would be unfair to say that I am happy with the current state of hip hop music...

Tell me something that people do not know about Lord Jamar??

LJ: That I am a deejay, and that I did all of the scratching on this album. Listen to 'Give It Up' and 'Advance the Game,' as well as all of the previous Brand Nubian albums.

And, in your time-off, what do you enjoy doing??

LJ: Being with my kids, being in the crib, staying (on) the computer -- Regular sh*t.

What has been your biggest career highlight??

LJ: We did a show at Syracuse University, with Run DMC, and we were so hot at the time that Run DMC asked us to close the show. And, at a different time, Russell Simmons told us we were the greatest group in the universe.

Futuristically speaking, what does the future hold for Lord Jamar??

LJ: Groups under my belt. Major movies under my belt. (Plus) a couple of more Brand Nubian albums, and a few more solo albums.

Any parting words??

LJ: Peace to everyone who supported me from the beginning. Peace to my Universal Family, and everyone who supports real Hip-Hop.

---Lord Jamar??€�s The 5% Album hits stores on June 27th, 2006
For further information, and to preview tracks from the forthcoming album, please visit:
www.5percent.org
www.hiphopcrack.com
www.babygrande.com

[Daniel-San]

INTERVIEW PAPOOSE 17 IULIE 2006

What's up?

I'm good. What's going on?

How much longer are you going to be a free agent?

It's going down real soon. Everything is in motion. Everything is happening real soon.

Can you let out any names?

I ain't going to put it out there like that until it's final. Once everything is signed, sealed and delivered, I'll put it out there.

What are you looking for?

A lot of different things. I need marketing and promotions, creative control and a guaranteed release date clause. These other cats are being signed and put on the shelf. Everything is in motion right now.

You've put a lot of work in to get to this point. Is it possible that you put in too much work?

It's impossible to do that. You have to work harder every day. Are you not going to go to work tomorrow because you went to work today? You need to go to work every day. It's the same way with this. It doesn't stop. I'm a workaholic. I want to work like a slave and eat like a king.

You were definitely patient waiting for this opportunity.

Yeah, definitely. I dedicated my life to this and at the end of the day, I can't just jump into anything. Patience is a virtue.

You must be happy you didn't sign with Select-O-Hits back in the day.

Yeah, I'm happy I didn't sign a lot of those deals. I'm happy I didn't sign a lot of that shit. A lot of cats took them and look where they're at.

It sounded like you had some decent offers. Was it ever hard turning them down and holding out?

I didn't worry about that. I'm secure financially and mentally. At the end of the day, I'm putting out good music and reaping all the benefits. I'm not in a rush. I'm doing paid shows, getting exposure on MTV, BET and every magazine. I'm not rushing to sign with anybody. Everything has to be right.

It has to feel good that you've been so many places without an album. It shows good music is still appreciated.

Yeah, exactly. A lot of people aren't understanding and realizing that a lot of careers are built off of hype. My career is built off of strong lyrics. Everything I've done revolves around me being myself. That's what I bring to the table.

Kayslay already touched on this when I interviewed him, but a lot of young rappers talk about guns, drugs and women. You can go outside of that box and still sound good.

I cover everything. I cover all aspects. You have to be versatile in this shit, man. That's what you see and hear when you hear a Papoose project, whether it's a mixtape or record. You hear versatility. I give you the night and the day. I don't just give you one without the other. I think that's what keeps me grounded too, that I'm not one-dimensional.

The 1.5 Million Dollar Man mixtape just dropped…

Yeah, that dropped yesterday. I was just in Philly yesterday for the Hip-Hop Summit. There were a lot of good people on the panel like the mayor, Russell Simmons, Queen Latifah and Queen Pen. We talked about a lot of things like community empowerment and how to keep your community strong. I really enjoyed that.

How did it feel being on a panel with Russell Simmons?

It was an honor. I grew up watching Russell Simmons. It was crazy. But everybody should go pick up that mixtape, the 1.5 Million-Dollar Man. For promotional use only, go find it at a bootlegger near you. We're the most consistent our right now. The Nacirema Dream is coming soon. That's going to make history, so prepare yourself.

How does mixtape #15 stack up to the rest of them?

Everything I do is a continuation of my last project if you pay attention. It's only one level higher on every project.

How long does it take you to do a mixtape?

It doesn't take that long. I just make music and at the end of the day, the mixtape is done.

You and Kayslay started some new things on the mixtapes.

Yeah. We started with the mixtape credits and putting "Produced By." We format those like albums. My mixtapes are like albums. We're the first to put credits on mixtape. Nobody was doing that before us. Nobody was messing with Miami Kaos before us. We started that. Now you see everybody doing that. I'm not mad at that.

With fifteen mixtapes out, the big question now is what more can Papoose do?

Make sure you cop my album. Then everyone can see what more I can do. Knowledge is infinite and you never stop learning. If you think I can run out of music, you're not listening. Everything is a continuation of the last one. I gave you three "Law Library's" and I gave you "Monopoly," then I took it to "Charades" and then to "Chess." It's all a continuation. At the end of the day, I'm leading you down a path to the final destination. Just pay attention and listen. I'm not just talking. I'm true to my art and everything is mapped out and planned strategically. I just want my fans to pay attention to what I'm saying and they won't be disappointed.

How's The Nacirema Dream coming?

My album is coming out crazy. I feel sorry for cats when my album drops. I feel sorry for cats. I'm not blowing smoke. A lot of people say that, but I feel sorry for cats. I'm coming full-blast.

There haven't been a lot of highly-anticipated debut albums to drop in a long time. Is there as much anticipation for The Nacirema Dream as there was for Illmatic?

I would never compare myself to those who came before me because they laid the path and made it possible for guys like me to come up. I would never compare myself to them on that type of level. The people are going to be able to respect what I put out and the album is going to make history.

Has there been as much anticipation for another debut album as there is for your album right now?

What do you think? I want to know your opinion.

Recently, I would say no. The only other highly-anticipated album in my opinion is Saigon's.

Make sure you put that in the interview. If I say that, people are going to take it for granted. You're at HipHopGame and you're interviewing different MC's every day. You saying it means more than me saying it.

Is the album overdue?

Don't blame me for the politics of the game. The only thing I did was play ball. I said, "You know what? However they want to do it, whatever obstacles they're putting in my way, I'm going to overcome them. I'm not going around them." They don't want a nigga like me in the game. They don't want a pure MC in the position I'm in. At the end of the day, I just kept swinging at whatever obstacles they put in my way. Overdue, I don't really know what that means. My time is now.

Have you ever been asked by industry execs to dumb down your style?

They know I'm versatile. When you sign to a label, you should be able to adapt, change and be versatile. I challenge anyone to pick up one of my mixtapes and hear the versatility on it.

How important has Kayslay been to your movement?

Real important. He's an underdog like me. He's been doing what he does for the longest and he doesn't get his just due. He still stays hot. He's been maintaining all these years and he's still on his grind like me. They try to hold me back from all angles but they can't.

Kayslay talked about making you do songs you may not want to do. At what point did you say you were going to try it regardless of how you felt?

I'm open to Kayslay's opinion. I'm open to suggestions. I'm not pig-headed. If you told me, "Pap, I think you would sound good on this." I would give you a listen. If I don't really hear it, then I'm not going to do it, but you can never say I didn't give you the opportunity to present it. Maybe you're hearing something I'm not hearing.

How is it in the studio with Slay?

It's a good experience. He's a workaholic and I'm a workaholic so it's a good combination. We work real good together.

How does it feel having Kayslay's full support?

It feels great. Everything happens for a reason. The opportunity that I have is because Kayslay gives everybody a chance. Everybody knows on Thursday nights that they have a chance. At the end of the day, are you going to use that chance? I'm the only one who followed up on it and showed up at the table when I was supposed to come to the table. I was consistent with it and I seized the moment. Kayslay gives everybody a chance. Nobody can take that away from him. I'm just the only dude who capitalized off that.

How did you feel spitting "Alphabetical Slaughter" live on the radio for Kayslay?

I wasn't nervous at all. I had that song for years. I had been listening to Hot97 forever and I was finally up there in the flesh. I would never take an opportunity like that for granted.

What's the best advice Kayslay's given you?

Not to react to all the haters out there. There are times I get mad because I've been on the grind forever and for a nigga to hate on me, how could you do that? How could you hate on me? You'd have to be stupid. I'm the truth, man. I'm not a nigga who tripped over a record deal. I didn't have a silver spoon in my mouth. I came from the bottom. For a nigga to hate on me, they don't deserve to live. Kayslay helped me to not pay those idiots no mind.

How much research did you do for the "Law Library" songs?

A lot. I come from the ghetto. I come from the hood and growing up in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn, you see dudes going to jail every day. The prisons are overcrowded. What better idea than to do "Law Library"? There are so many levels of the law and so many ins and outs that dudes need to know.

Would you be a lawyer if you weren't rapping?

Nah, that never crossed my mind.

How much research do you do for songs versus what you already know just from reading and observing?

A lot of the shit is common sense and certain shit you have to do research on. The majority of the times, it's just common sense that you have to elaborate on further. We already know a lot of the stuff, sometimes we just don't realize it. As an MC I bring everything to the table. Nothing is counted out. Others are so one-dimensional talking about how much they bust their gun. There is so much other shit going on in the world to talk about. I think they're crazy for that. I bring everything to the table. I bring the kitchen sink, my old sneakers and my report card. I bring everything to the table. I'm just trying to make you understand I leave nothing out. I'm a fan first and I know what I want to hear.

You have songs like "Charades" where you stay on one theme. GZA is one of the only other MC's to master that form. Is GZA an influence for you?

I definitely respect the Wu-Tang Clan and what they laid down. Everybody who came before me, I respect what they laid down, period. I came up listening to Kool G. Rap, Rakim, LL, all those dudes.

Are the hip-hop police watching you?

Hell yeah. They're watching everybody. They're waiting for us to slip, especially me. My voice carries and I give you both sides. I give you the positive and the negative and they don't like that. At the end of the day, of course they're watching. They're watching everybody to a certain extent. We're all under the eye in the sky.

Were you talking to anybody on "Russian Roulette"?

You know what I say to that? If the shoe fits, wear it.

On "Robbery Song," you said, "I dropped 'Get Right' to show these dudes I can/Do what they do, versatile I am/I showed my fans the wise man can play the part of the fool/But the fool can't play the part of the wise man." How do you feel about "Get Right"?

I do a lot of shows and I travel a lot. I'm in a different city almost every day. When I do that record at shows, the response is crazy. You can check out the footage from my shows and see the response from my shows. The response is crazy. What do you feel about the song?

It's not one of my favorite records but I understand why you did it.

No doubt. I respect that.

How do you feel about fans who say you can't do those records without selling out?

I think they're crazy. They didn't pay attention from day one. I never came from one element. I always did a combination of different types of records. I think that the more you grow, the more they turn their back on you. When you start to grow, they don't love you anymore. Everybody always loves the underdog and when you're not the underdog, they don't love you no more. That may be the reason for that. At the end of the day, I'm versatile and I can make records about anything.

How important has Busta Rhymes been to you?

Real important. Busta Rhymes is a living legend. He's one of the greatest stage performers ever and he makes big records. He saw what I bring to the table. I'm the most feared MC. I'm new to the audience, but MC's know me. A lot of MC's were scared to do what Busta Rhymes did. It's Streetsweepers/Flipmode.

Are you an official member of Flipmode?

Of course I am. Streetsweepers and Flipmode did a joint venture. It's not like I'm signing directly to Flipmode. It's a joint venture to make both entities stronger. Am I an official member of Flipmode? Yes. Am I an official member of Streetsweepers? Yes. Am I an official member of Violator? Yes. Am I an official member of Thugacation? Yes. We all formed as one now.

What's the most valuable advice you've received from Busta?

Actions speak louder than words and he showed me that you can't stop. How many years has he been making hit records and how many rappers has he been shutting down on the stage? I learned from watching him and seeing him come up in the game.

Are veteran MC's scared to be shown up by you on a track?

Everybody who came before me, I give them the utmost respect. I did a record with Nas. I did a record with G. Rap. These are dudes who came to the table and saw what I was doing. I did a record with Sauce Money. I wouldn't sit here and say the veteran MC's are scared to work with me. I have too much respect to do that. What I said about me being the most feared MC, that's true.

Did rocking the BET Awards feel different from all the other shows you've done?

Yeah. Hell yeah it felt different. That was in front of millions of people. Summer Jam was 52,000, but nothing's bigger than national TV. That was a hell of an experience. A lot of cats haven't experienced that. That shit was priceless.

Do you have a new type of fan discover you who didn't know about you on the mixtapes?

It definitely took things to another level. It's just growth. You'd be surprised to know how many people knew me before that. I was surprised. Honestly, I can't even walk down the block without signing autographs now. The BET Awards gave me more exposure, but it's definitely not the birth of my popularity.

Is The Nacirema Dream going to happen in 2006?

That's our aim right now. I'm not going to stand here and bullshit you, but that's definitely our aim.

Is the album almost done?

The album is done. I have enough material for two or three albums. It's just a matter of picking and choosing.

What are your plans for the rest of the summer?

It's a surprise. I'm not warning these cats. I'm not giving them sneak previews. My mixtape dropped on their head out of nowhere. They know what's in my blood. I'm going to keep working.

What advice do you have for young MC's trying to come up in the game today?

Only do it if it's in your heart. Don't do it because you see Papoose doing it or someone else. Don't waste your time if it's not in your heart. Don't do it because you see your favorite rappers doing it. Be consistent with it. Four freestyles, a video, five DVD's, and four shows is not going to do it. Don't let anybody tell you what you can and can't do.

What do you want to say to all your fans?

I'm not just saying this, but thank you for your support. Look out for my album coming real soon and Kayslay's album with Greg Street, The Champions. The video features myself, Shaquille O'Neal, and Bun-B. Look out for the Jeanie Ortega's video featuring me. Look out for The Nacirema Dream.

[Daniel-San]

si daca l-am pus pe papoose sa il pun shi pe cel cu dj kayslay



What's up?

I'm good. I'm just working hard, handling my business out here.

The big question right now is what label is going to win the Papoose sweepstakes?

We got to the point where we had deals offered to us over a two-year period of time. They were disrespectful numbers. We're at the point where now we have record-breaking performances and the BET Awards. We can't take any less than what we're supposed to get and we need a machine behind him that fully understands his situation. We're down to two labels, and with one label, our lawyers are with them now. The deal should be done no longer than two weeks from now.

Can you tell us the labels?

I don't want to really jinx things, but one is a powerhouse and one hasn't had nobody there in hip-hop from the east coast in awhile. One's a clear lane and we might have to put more work in, and one's a big machine, but they have a lot of superstars there. That's all I can really say.

Putting in work doesn't seem to be a problem for you or Papoose. With all your experience in the game, have you ever seen another artist with Papoose's work ethic?

No. I really haven't. I know there may be some that exist, but being that I'm not right there with them, I don't know. From day one, the first time we went in the studio, Papoose recorded five joints. It wasn't a twelve-hour session, it was only four or five hours. I knew then he was going to be a problem. I'm seeing this first-hand. Nobody else is seeing this. I know how intelligent he is. The first time he did "Alphabetical Slaughter" and he spit that non-stop and that was a five-and-a-half or six-minute joint and he didn't skip a letter or a beat in each segment and the words he was using, I knew he could do anything and flow anyway and he could adopt to any style or concept.

I can give you the four points of every rapper coming up. One is how much time I've been in jail. The second is how much I bust my gun. The third is how much drugs I sell. The fourth is how dangerous the hood I come from is. If you tell a rapper, "Look, I'll give you $500,000 if you can rhyme without using any of those elements," they'd be lost. If you can do records without touching any of those elements, that's a gift from God.

You guys have been grinding it out for the past couple of years together. Looking back, did your plan work exactly how you wanted it to?

It worked a little better, actually. There was a time when we were going to take a certain deal, and it was only $600,000. The "Charades" record had just hit the radio. That was just a freestyle. It was getting crazy spins and Flex was bombing it, I'm hitting it, and other DJ's are hitting it. I said, "We're not going to take this. It's going to get bigger than this." We just kept grinding and grinding. The only thing that's funny to me is when I signed the kid, I signed him because he was so dope, and nobody saw the big picture. Not one person affiliated with me. They were all like, "What are you doing? That's a baby Canibus or some shit." Now they understand.

How has Papoose grown working with you the past two years?

The thing about Papoose is he doesn't talk a lot. If he doesn't know you, he won't talk to you. He'll just observe you. He's a real observant person. The great thing about him is he put his trust in me. I told him there were going to be things he didn't want to do. I told him all I needed him to do was rap and he was going to make it. He didn't want to get on the "Hip-Hop Police" record. I told him to just do it. He took a classic and flipped it, and boom. He was rebelling against me, and I was telling him, "Don't worry about it. Just do it." There are some artists who may not want to do something and they do it just because and because they trust you so much. It makes it so much easier than when you have some asshole who thinks he knows the whole game. If they know the whole game, why do they need you? Papoose is a good person to work with. The most amazing thing about him that a lot of people don't know is that Papoose doesn't write anything down. He does not write notes. Everything he does is straight out of his mind. I just heard a story on the TV and they were talking about some of the greatest writers. Papoose said, "I'm a writer in my mind. If I have to write it on paper, then I have to memorize it. If I write it in my mind, then it's always there." Where else do you hear shit like that?

Is Papoose's debut album The Nacirema Dream done?

We have so much material. We're on mixtape number fifteen. That's about to come out next week. That's called The 1.5 Million-Dollar Man. You're getting it first right here. 1.5 is Supreme Mathematics. This is mixtape number-fifteen. The number 15 is also Supreme Mathematics for Knowledge Power. We just have so much material and we've worked so much, that even when we're doing mixtapes, we do album cuts and we say, "We're holding this. This is for the album." We've been recording records for over two years. This is number fifteen. In that period of time, we've technically released fifteen albums. That's how much material we've got. When you hear these album cuts, wow. I listen to them every day. I wake up to them sometimes. I believe people are really going to be impressed with the album.

Do you ever worry Papoose is going to run out of material?

No. That's exactly what I'm talking about. He is so intelligent. He never stops. He's been doing shows for a year and a half and getting paid for them. All he had was mixtapes out, so all his shows were like a mixtape tour.

Did you ever have a conflict between playing Papoose because he's dope but also playing him because he's your artist and people will say he's only getting play because of his affiliation with you?

No, I never really had that conflict. There are always a couple of people looking out for him. I never oversaturated it. I'd hit his joint and then seven or eight other joints. You wouldn't hear me playing ten of his joints back-to-back. I did it in a way where I wanted people to know why I was playing him instead of force-feeding them. When I first started playing him on my mixtapes, I put him at the bottom. Every tape, I would start inching him up so people would respect him for who he is. I've never heard that he's big because he's my artist. I let him show and prove. I never really had those problems.

How instrumental have you been in setting up his collaborations with MC's and producers?

That's all been me politicking, just making sure that he gets to work with everybody. After awhile, people said they like what we're doing and they want to give us a beat or they want to jump on a joint with him. That's how it happened with Busta Rhymes, Talib Kweli was like that...a lot of people wanted to do things with him. Some of the top artists were feeling like they needed to rap with him and he was on their level. Nas isn't going to just rap with anybody. Busta's not just going to rap with anybody. Lloyd Banks isn't going to just get on a track with anybody.

What's the ideal drop date for his debut album?

Right now, we don't have an ideal date, but we definitely want to have him out by October. Right now, the album is done. We have a couple of Dr. Dre beats. Premier gave us a track. We have five more records that we want to do. Then we're going to start playing process of elimination because we have so many records. We just have to pick the best ones, and that's going to be hard.

Did Papoose's "Get Right" do what you needed it to?

Let me be totally honest with you. Those ain't our kinds of records. You have to understand that with the audience, you have to satisfy every angle. That's not his first single. His album isn't done and we haven't signed a deal yet .That was his first club-type record where females can shake their ass to him and have fun too. We make a lot of conscious records and talk about what's going on in the world and we jump on other people's beats too. We never had a record where girls could shake their ass to it and it could play in the club. That's all it was to me. It was just a record. Everybody seemed to have it out for me. I was looking at the comments and they're saying it's not Papoose's style. Papoose has all styles. We're not catering to an all-male audience. We're trying to rap to the ladies too. That's all that's about, is being versatile.

You have an album coming with Greg Street. How was it working with him?

He's great. It was a piece of cake. He had his strings and I had mine. We have a lot of genuinely good records. I just leaked a record the other day with Mike Jones, Papoose, and Paul Wall so Papoose can show his talent and show how he works with brothers from other regions. The first single has the world champion Shaquille O'Neal with Papoose and Bun-B. There's Busta Rhymes, Ghostface, Raekwon, Kool G. Rap, and Big Daddy Kane. There's a huge variety on there from those guys to southern rappers to Dipset and Lloyd Banks from G-Unit. We have Yung Joc on there, Remy Martin on there, and that's the possible next single. It's something for the ladies. We have nineteen records and two skits.

I heard you're working on a mixtape with Saigon.

I had done that for Saigon a minute ago, but I guess he's been working on his album so he's probably just getting around to putting it together. From the material I heard, it was hot. Now that he's in his situation with Just Blaze, I know there's a lot of crazy joints I haven't heard.

Didn't you try to sign Saigon in the past?

Yeah. What it was was that he was in a situation with Mark Ronson and it was too crazy of a situation. They wanted me to still do it, but there were too many heads around. It was crazy. His situation was just too crazy. I had done the first mixtape with him with Whoo Kid, then I hosted another one for him. I said I would still support dude, but his situation was just too crazy.

I remember getting Saigon's first Yardfather tape. You knew about him before all of us.

He had a street image but he had the intelligence to go along with it. He can talk street things, but be knowledgeable and have a good message about it. It was really getting to a point where I wanted to get my own artist because a lot of these artists were pissing me off with their bullshit. At first, they're calling me trying to get on my tapes. They're calling me all day. Then when you reach out back, they're saying they'll do something next week. When they get to a certain level, they don't want to do shit anymore. They just want to run around and front and floss. I knew I had to create my own artist so I wouldn't have to deal with the bullshit. The first person was going to be Saigon but he had too much going on with his other situation. There was another cat I ran into but he ended up getting locked up. Then there was Papoose. That's the gist of it.

How many artists are trying to get on your tapes now?

It's crazy because now everybody wants to be the next Papoose. They see what I did with him and they want it done for them. I'm not saying it's that easy because everybody is different and everybody doesn't possess the same qualities, but everyone can come off at their own angle. Papoose is a different artist across the board. When it came to rapping, there were no flaws, and I knew I had someone who could do what I needed to be done. He executed it.

I have another artist I'm working with. Her name is Vein and she's from VA but she resides in New York. She's a real versatile artist as well. I just got a call from XXL wanting to interview her. She's been around for a second. I observed her grind and most importantly, her personality. You have to have somebody calm who you're not going to be bailing out of jail. She's focused on life in general. I have some heat coming from her as well, too. She's on the album with Greg Street on the song "The Introduction." She has a mixtape out. She collaborated with Remy Martin, Papoose, Busta Rhymes, Jae Millz, Chamillionaire, and Stat Quo. I'm going to let her handle herself and let people see how creative she is.

You're also one of the first DJ's to show Joell Ortiz love.

Pardon me, I tried to sign that dude too. Let me tell you, the world is lucky. If I would have had Papoose and him, I don't think the world was ready for that anyway. That's too much ammo. Joell Ortiz is a great rapper. All he needs is the right structure behind him and someone to show him how to format his records. He'll make some nice records. He's going to be all right. I see it in him too.

I had also heard rumors you were going to work with Jojo Pellegrino.

Nah. Jojo Pellegrino, everything's cool and we go way back. I haven't spoken to him in a minute. If he needed my assistance, I'm there. I think he just caught a bad break, but he's good people. The key thing is I don't count anybody out and I give everybody a fair shot. What you do with that shot is entirely up to you. One thing you won't be able to say is, "Slay never gave me that opportunity."

How important is that to you?

The key thing is me being an OG in the game and being a part of hip-hop from day one when it evolved from disco, I know what it takes to maintain and stay around in the game. I've seen LL Cool J and how he adjusted to the sounds and the times. Now he has to take his shirt off and do what the women who buy records want him to do. The ones who are established are going to the executive side, and the gentlemen coming up now will be the next generation. Who do I work with? The brothers who are established or the brothers who are next? I decided to work with the artists coming from the ground up. Who are they going to say gave them their start five years from now? "Kay Slay." My name will never die. I stay grounded. Everybody's worried about Jay-Z and Cam'ron, but they're going to get love regardless. I'm more concerned with the artists coming up.

Whether people recognize it or give credit, I can say I was strong in the south movement getting to where it's at, not DJ Drama. If you want to be real with it, TI, when he was Tip, when he first got his record deal with Arista. When he first got that deal, Kevin Cooper was bringing him to my house so he could create a buzz in New York City. That was in 1999-2000. He would freestyle on my old mixtapes. When he had the record with Beenie Man that was his first single, he asked me to go to BET with him to the basement and DJ for him off my New York credibility. Ludacris used to come to my house before he blew up. The first radio show Mike Jones was on was Hot97. Paul Wall, Lil' Flip, and my first single on my last album was 3-6 Mafia. The first time 3-6 Mafia ever got on MTV was from my single. That was their first time. That's Kay Slay. 8Ball back in the day. I supported these artists from day one when their whole movement was coming about. Dem Franchize Boyz were on my show when they got no airplay and were getting no love, I was giving them airtime. Lil' Jon before he blew up, I was playing his records like crazy. Bryan Leach from TVT will tell you. I was very influential in southern rap getting up; it was not a southern DJ because in order for a region to pop, it has to pop in New York. Once it pops in New York, that's when everyone else gravitates towards it. I was the first DJ up here to support that. I had Cee-lo Green hosting my tapes. Ask those artists. They're not going to say it's not true. They're going to say Slay was the first person to do this or that. It is what it is.

Does it bother you that other DJ's like Drama get more credit?

Not really. This is in no disrespect to Drama. His name is partially from mine. It partially comes from my name. Two, he comes from Philly. He's not from the south. He's from up north. Three, he took the method I started down south and that's how he blew up. I was the first person to put hosts on mixtapes. I put street hustlers and gangsters on my tapes and I was doing quadruple-CD's and triple-CD's. He took the method I was doing and started blowing up. I think it was real smart for him to do that. If you can't make it in the region you're at, sometimes you have to find another region. It's all love whenever I see him, but they need to pay homage. I'm the Drama King, his name is DJ Drama. Two, he took my method of hosting and crated his own music. That's cool. Three, he was saying in an interview that he's known for his hosting and talking shit on mixtapes. Who started talking shit on mixtapes? Me! The Drama King. It's funny to me. I do a lot of reading and I observe. As long as niggas know in their hearts that they didn't master their situation by themselves, then they'll be all right. I remember TI when he had his first big record with Beenie Man, he didn't have DJ Drama to go in the basement with Big Tigger. He had Kay Slay. I've done that and niggas need to recognize what it is.

Ghostface recently said New York hip-hop is bad because of the DJ's. How did you feel about that statement?

I think Ghostface might have been a little frustrated when he said that. Ghostface is my brother. When he said that, I'm going to let that one bounce off me. I'm water-repellant. I know he was frustrated at the time. You can't blame the DJ's. His "Back Like That" still plays on the radio. That was on one of the biggest rotations. A lot of DJ's play songs off his albums. He's one of the best rappers of all time. When he hasn't had a record out, I've reached out to him for freestyles. He's been in my crib before and we've been wyling out. We have fallen solders in common like Chip Banks. He's my brother. I didn't take that in no way. He's not talking about me. He was frustrated to even make that statement because his record was in rotation. What else can you do from that? If anything, you need to point the finger at the audience and your fans and say they're confused about where they're from. You can't blame the DJ's who are playing your records.

There's been a lot of debate about the recent strength of New York hip-hop. What's your take on that issue?

New York will never fall off. We're the makers and the owners. We started it and we'll finish it. A lot of the artists in the south do money deals. A lot of them have bullshit deals and all they needed was distribution and they got it popping. A lot of them have gone gold, sold 800,000, or gone platinum. You can take 50 Cent and sell five-million copies and take five big artists from the south and they won't sell as much as 50 Cent. The biggest seller in rap right now is 50 Cent and he's in New York. I don't understand. The south is getting more airplay in the clubs and the radio, but how can you say New York fell off? Jay-Z is a mogul in the industry and Rick Ross and Young Jeezy are on Def Jam. He assists southern rap. How did we fall off? Young Buck went platinum and he's signed to 50 Cent. When they say New York fell off, it kind of confuses me. There aren't many hip-hop artists in New York who have released albums. Busta Rhymes is the only one to release an album recently and that's the biggest album in the country right now. Maybe people are looking for too much from us.

When you come to New York, unless you're listening to a mixshow, you're not hearing too many new artists because the A&R's are looking for the quick buck. They want that hot hook. If you have a hot hook, you're getting signed. They don't care about skills anymore. Are people looking for hip-hop where it's something you live, or rap, which is something you do. Hip-hop is something you live, rap is something you do. These niggas are fucking with rap and that's something you can do or I can do. But can you really write records that can change people's lives? Up north, we have records that change peoples' lives. We're lyricists. Down south, you have Scarface, TI, Ludacris, 8Ball and MJG, Bun-B, and most of the other brothers are really entertainers. There's different angles to this music but what if you gave a lot of these rappers a mic on Freestyle Friday. The truth will come out. "Oh, you're not really a rapper, you're an entertainer." And that's cool, I just don't want people to get it confused.

We have the top lyricists in the world in New York. If I wanted to be disrespectful, I could grab Kool G. Rap and Rakim and take on rappers from anywhere. Let's not get into the Papoose's and the Saigon's and the Jae Millz' and the Joell Ortiz'. Pardon me, Chamillionaire is a lyricist too. Mike Jones is new. Yung Joc is new. Young Jeezy is a new artist. Rick Ross is a new artist. They get 10,000 times more airplay than new artists from New York. It looks like we're not there, but we're standing strong. Sooner or later, they're going to see we didn't go nowhere and it's the way the industry is pushing these artists that make it seem that way.

How do you feel about the mixtape game today?

There's too many mixtape DJ's now. There's too many of them. We used to put the tapes out where everything was exclusive and you didn't have records other DJ's were using. Now you don't have that. There's no originality now. It's fucked up. Shit is fucked up. Everybody wants to be a mixtape DJ. I don't consider myself a mixtape DJ. I'm a businessman. If you really want the truth, anybody who knows my history knows I've been DJ'ing for over thirty years. Case in point, when I came back to the DJ'ing, I didn't want to be the Mixtape Game. No disrespect, but they have this title called "intern" which is really code for "flunky." If the boss needs coffee, who goes to get it? The intern. I could not see myself getting down to doing that when I wanted to get back into the mixshow. That's why I started doing the tapes. I wanted to build a brand so I could do what I wanted to do in the game. It just so happened that I was coming so strong and coming so hard and having street cats hosting tapes and cats like Larry Davis calling and doing drops, real gangsters in the street, that really caught people's attention. I was putting people's personalities on tapes. I had Shyne host a tape before he went to jail. Then I realized I needed to do radio, get some sponsorships, and get an artist. It just so happened that I did the mixtapes so well and it took me to the next level. 90% of these guys making mixtapes have no plan. They're just saying, "This is me and this is hot." They have no plans to try to take it to a radio show, manage artists, or be an entrepreneur. They're doing one of the things right. That's not what I got into it for, but I can see what they're doing just by looking at their tracklisting. Seeing them emulating people's styles is nothing new to me, but why are you doing it?

Are you going to focus on producing more?

Definitely. I'm just the type of person where I like to do things when I want to do it and I do it to death. I do it to the fullest extent. There are only so many hours in the day and if you're going to be the best at what you do, you have to put the time in. Beat-making takes time like DJ'ing and doing shows, so I can't really put all my focus into it right now so I'm not into it like that.

You must have been happy seeing Shaq win the title.

Yeah. We work together with his label Deja34 Records. The first release from that label was my album through Koch. It couldn't be better timing for this new album, which is titled "The Champions," plus Shaq is on the single. That worked beautifully.

What do you want to say to everyone?

Never judge a book by its cover. I know a lot of people say a lot of things about me and they don't really know me. There's nothing I can do about that. I'm not going out of my way to show them. I handle my business and I respect people the way they respect me. If you have a passion to do something, do it. Don't be what other people want you to be. You need to get what you need to get and get there. Nobody can stop destiny. If somebody puts a gun to your head and you're not supposed to die, that clip is going to jam. Just take your time and do what you need to do. You see how you just paged me and we're doing this interview. That's the type of person I am. I'm a grinder. I ain't no procrastinator.

[iLL:WiLL]

Rakim Interview Pt. 2



Audio Interview

[iLL:WiLL]

According to Nas' 2002 track 'Last Real Nigga Alive' certain Wu Killah Bees saw the late Biggie Smalls as a glorified swagger-jacker; Ghostface himself ridiculed the cover Big's debut album, 'Ready to Die', during his premiere tirade on biting (see 'Only Built 4 Cuban Linx', 1995). Big never directly returned fire, but anyone who has heard Bad Boy's 'Madd Rapper' skit ('Life After Death', 1997) can't deny that it's loosely based on Wu Tang's signature frenetic lingo. Though his namesake is featured in the parody, Wu stand out Johnny Blaze, AKA Method Man, has steered clear of any rap beef or open industry conflict until now.

Negative write-ups about 'Tical 2000: Judgment Day (1998)' and Wendy Williams' recent on air revelation that his wife suffers from breast cancer set Meth aflame with anger and determination to prove us critics wrong. It's safe to say NBS absorbed the most unadulterated interview he has done or will do in preparation for the August 29 release of his third solo LP, '4.21: The Day after'. Everyone from Williams and Def Jam, to Pharrell, gullible Hip Hop fans and yep-yeah me too, get at least grazed via Meth's verbal clipse. But I survived to relay the story. Peep.

Method Man : What up Mike? You fuckin bastard-scum bag-fuckin fuck face!

(laughs) Tical how are you? I see you're in a great mood man? How are you man?

Method Man : What's up you fuckin fuck face-blood sucking leech?

(Laughs)

Method Man : What's up Pa? What's up?

I'm good brother. I'm peace. Let's jump right into it; had Jay-Z's being president over there enhanced any major aspects of your album-making-experience?

Method Man : I don't know. I'ma wait till I drop my album and shit. As far as my album making, nah; you guys helped with that, you fuckin scum bag.

How did we help you?

Method Man : All that bitch ass criticism y'all been giving the kid and shit. Word up! Y'all had me on my grizzly. Ni**as is acting like-y'all ni**as just shit on me every fuckin chance y'all get and shit like it ain't real and shit; like a muthafucka don't feed his kids this way and shit; like I have better things to fuckin do. Then y'all big-up ni**as that ain't got half my fuckin skin. Y'all ni**as eat a dick you fuckin fags; every last one of you sons of fuckin bitches; with your fuckin pens and your fuckin reviews and fuck that man!

Listen, Meth. Meth. Meth.

Method Man : All I'm doing is fuckin defending myself man; for real man. I be getting a lot of backlash, muthafuckas attacking me and shit-

I know. I know.

Method Man : For real B; now I'm attacking back man. Fuck all y'all muthafuckas!

When did you first begin hearing the criticism of 'Meth's falling off; Meth this; Meth that?

Method Man : Gottdamn it! Every fuckin other word is "Meth falling off". I can't believe that shit! How can I be washed up when I'm the dirtiest thing in fuckin sight?

When did you first hear that though?

Method Man : Huh?

When did you first begin hearing those things get tossed around?

Method Man : After that last album.

OK. OK. I can dig it. So when you heard the Lauren Hill track, 'Some Much Things', did you think 'Yeah I gotta rock over this'? How did that go down?

Method Man : Nah, Ellis heard it first and he heard me complaining for so many muthafuckin months, and he got to a point where he was like "Yo I found the perfect muthafuckin record for yo ass and shit right?"

OK.

Method Man : I was like "Yeah let me hear it" and he put the shit on; it was the 'Say' record-I was like "Yeah man. Yeah man". I sat there, I wrote to the shit. You know what I'm saying? Then I cried.

(Laughs) Stop playing!

Method Man : And then I was like-then it just hit me and shit like You know what? Fuck these muthafuckas. If I ever get a chance to do any fuckin interviews again then I'm cursing these ni**as out early! Fuck you ni**a!

(Laughs)

Method Man : Fuck everything you fuckin stand for you writing son-of-a-bitch! Y'all ni**as ain't never been where the fuck I been at and shit; y'all don't know where I'm coming from, so ya definitely don't know where the fuck I'm going. Y'all ni**a can suck me the fuck-fuck y'all ni**as man!

Listen man-

Method Man : Matter fact, fuck a interview, go fuckin suck off Ghostface some more you fuckin bastard!

Listen Meth. Listen-listen-listen-speaking of where you're coming from, is the overall tone of '4.21' redemption and letting people know Tical is still on top of his?

Method Man : I'm letting ni**as know that I ain't no wack fuckin emcee. Fuck what they been hearing man. This only been coming from people in the fuckin industry and they can eat a fuckin dick-with funky fuckin asses. Gottdamn it, like I said man, this how I eat and shit; this how I feed my kids and they ain't build a man that can stop me from feeding my fuckin kids man!

I hear that-gotta survive. So listen-

Method Man : I ain't no violent ni**a; I always been peace with everybody; always kept a smile on my face and shit, tryna accommodate everybody, but fuck y'all ni**as man! For real! I ain't tryna accommodate none of y'all fuckin fags no fuckin more man! [You] gon shit on a nice ni**a and big up-this bitch fuckin Kate man- this bitch get caught sniffing blow and this bitch is blowing up all over the place!

That's crazy.

Method Man : A bitch get caught sniffing blow on the cover of a fuckin magazine ni**a! Fuck y'all ni**as man. Fuck y'all ni**as man. Fuck y'all ni**as man. Y'all ni**as ain't shit; y'all ni**as is a bunch of blood sucking-fuckin-pigs man!

Listen Meth-

Method Man : -fuckin up the fuckin culture man!

Let me ask you this: do you feel like your inspiration to make music suffered when you were focusing more on the film and TV stuff? Did that take away at all from your emceeing?

Method Man : Hell-fuckin no! Only thing that was taking away from it was people telling me shit and me reading this bad press everybody fuckin tryna give me and shit. That's what took away from it cause it made me fuckin doubt myself more and more. But what took me out of that rut-what made me stop pointing the finger at myself and shit and stop believing what the fuck I was reading-[was] going out in the street and fuckin with my ni**as again; going to peoples hoods and seeing that I was good by myself; just me and my lil son walking through all kind of parts in New York by ourselves like this ni**ga, good. You know what? Fuck what a fuckin magazine muthafucka gotta say about me; fuck what a fuckin ni**a putting a review about me; fuck what a ni**a talk about washed-up-fell-the-fuck-off. I'm good at what I do man and I know I'm good at what I do man.

That's why I'm sitting here fuckin fuming-fuckin mad-that somebody could actually point the finger at me and act like I'm the wackest ni**a when there's a hundred muthafuckas out there right now selling records that's wack as a fuck B! Y'all ni**as big these ni**as the fuck up then XXL gon put me in the 'Step Ya Rap Game Up' list and Lil Flip still making albums? Get the fuck out my fuckin face! Don't put that in there though cause I love Lil Flip.

(Laughs) Naw-naw-naw; don't air me out then try to censor me good brother. We gotta keep it raw. So listen-

Method Man : Nah-nah-nah. I keep it raw, but I love Flip man. No way I'm going out like that. I'm not gon discredit another muthafuckin emcee the way y'all do B.

OK. OK.

Method Man : I'm not gon do that man. I will not beat my brethren down. We worked too hard to get where the fuck we at.

Exactly.

Method Man : They rather see us back on the fuckin block sticking our gun in somebody fuckin face.

Exactly. So, speaking of where you're at now-the 'Yah Mean' joint with Fat Joe and Styles-

Method Man : That wasn't my idea either.

Huh?

Method Man : That wasn't my idea either.

(Laughs) Well people in Philly really dig that, with the 'Yah mean' of course. That hook wasn't you? You came together and collaborated?

Method Man : Naw that was all me but I'm saying, the song and shit, as far as putting-like, I myself, I was gon do the whole album for dollo; I ain't want no guest appearances and shit. But it was presented to me, Fat Joe and I thought to myself, well damn, yeah I did something for Fat Joe back in the days, he owe me a favor and shit plus I love Joey. I known Joey for like thirteen jump-offs now; since I came in the game I knew Fat Joe so it's like no problem. Then Styles P got put on the record and shit. That wasn't my idea either and shit but it's like I love Styles P; he one of my favorite fuckin emcees. Why not?

Why not?

Method Man : And then next thing I know, ni**a done re-did the record and put the shit on radio and I'm like Wait a minute. Hold up. Ain't nobody tell me nothing. I ain't get to approve the mix or nothing ni**a. What everybody jumping the gun for?

Oh, they kind of fast forwarded you huh?

Method Man : Yeah and then right after that- right on top of that, I say that record didn't get spinned maybe for a week before they threw that 'Say' record out there.

Word.

Method Man : And that was the label; that was-Def Jam did that.

Did you get a chance to address them about that-whether it be Jay or whoever?

Method Man : Look I sat down in a meeting with Jay, LA, Steve-we all sat there and you know what sold [it]to me-and this came from Steve [a] smart muthafucka by the way-he's like "The record's out there now. What you gon do, run from a hit record?" I'm like "You right". What the fuck I'ma do, run from a hit record?

Might as well just embrace it, OK.

Method Man : So when I was sitting there and shit I was like "That's some smart shit to say right there". Up till then he was just a name in the building. The ni**a's taking his position very seriously, so my thing was, OK y'all ni**as wanna attack this? Let see what happens.

Word up.

Method Man : Ya know? And the backlash on the record is some radio stations won't play it because of the one line that I said in there about, you know, the radio line [about] that ain't where the Hip Hop live.

Right.

Method Man : It live in the streets, but it's not like I was lying!

Exactly.

Method Man : Hip Hop ain't live on the radio ni**a!

Exactly. They tryna run from the truth a little bit huh?

Method Man :: Come on, exactly; they tryna run from the truth. But I said any radio station that's not playing that record it pertains to them-they guilty.

Word up. That's like a person hearing a song that doesn't say his name and being like "What? He talking about me?"

Method Man : Yup. They guilty cause whoever it sounds like, they gon become offended to it.

Right.

Method Man : "That sound like us! We be fronting on ni**as like that. We some bitch ass ni**as like that".

"We're not gonna play this record". I feel you. So listen-

Method Man : And that's why I wrote the record too-for y'all muthafuckas. And I dedicate this one to you.

OK.

Method Man : Fuckin punk ass ni**as with y'all pens and shit. Y'all ni**as is full of shit B! Y'all big a ni**a up to knock em the fuck down! Matter fact, fuck that like I said, don't even talk to me. Why don't y'all go suck Ghostface off. Go call Ghost; suck him off for another fuckin six months and shit!

Well listen I understand your frustration, but I like to think I'm not apart of the lames who big up ni**as and tear ni**as down. But anyway, is the 'Yah Mean' the only song with features on '4.21'?

Method Man : Yeah without various Wu Tang members. I got Redman, Genuwine, Megan Rochelle-that was another label move right there, but I ain't mad at her; she cute.

(laughs)

Method Man : Shit that's pretty much [it]. You know, various Wu Tang members, I said again.

OK.

Method Man : Havoc, Mobb Deep; I love Hav, that's been my ni**a since day one; day-one-dun-dun.

As far as beats who are you working with on the album?

Method Man : Scott Storch, he did one. Duro did one. Kwamae did two and most of the production was done by RZA and Eric (Sermon) did four. RZA did four.

Word up. You mentioned Red. What happened with the sitcom-the Fox sitcom? Why do you thin that didn?t jump off like it should have?

Method Man : Ni**a I wanted out soon as I seen the pilot.

Hmmm.

Method Man : For real! But it was more or less like "No these things are gonna work out Meth. Don't worry, we been doing this for a long time". I'm listening to these muthafuckas and shit. I should have known to pull out when these muthafuckas was telling me "Wait till the sitcom come out, you're not gonna be able to walk down the street". It's like hello! Excuse me, I already can't walk down the street.

I know! Who are they talking about?!

Method Man : Sons of fuckin bitches!

That's crazy.

Method Man : -gon blow smoke up my ass and shit. That's why I'm glad I discredited the show before anyone else got the chance to, but there were some people that said some real fucked up shit like this one lady, she calls herself the Hip Hop acting coach. Who the fuck calls themselves a Hip Hop acting coach?!

(laughs)

Method Man : Come on boo-boo, I wouldn't even go on record as saying that's my job description right there-I'ma Hip Hop acting coach.

Man.

Method Man : She went straight on the radio and said me and Redman was cooning.

Woe! Wow.

Method Man : Cooning! Son I never been called a coon B! I'm liable to spit in that bitch face when I see her, and I ain't no violent ni**a man. And I ain't never put my hand on no woman and shit, never. You can ask any of my boo-boos.

Right.

Method Man : I ain't put my hand on no woman and shit but her-I ain't never been called a coon before ni**a. I will spit in that bitch face.

That's serious.

Method Man : That's like worst than a white person calling me a ni**a; that's another black person calling me a coon ni**a! A black person that calls themselves the Hip Hop acting coach! Bitch is you serious?!

That sounds really backwards.

Method Man : That bitch can't be serious yo! But, you know, that's why when LA Times came to interview a ni**a and shit I was like-I told them people when I was sitting on the set, "Y'all sure y'all want me to talk to these ni**as? I don't really wanna talk to nobody". They was like "Talk to em". I talked to em and I blew that show up. I blew that show up. I was like These muthafuckas don't get it and yata-yata-ya and dida-dida-de; all I know was that shit had such a fuckin impact, I had to go back and re-do the interview. But I started off by saying I don't take back nothing I said first of all, but I will clean up a few things that I didn't fully understand when I made the statements that I made.

Yeah, just to clarify a little bit.

Method Man : Yeah.

I got you.

Method Man : But fuck that sitcom shit! That's why right after that shit wrapped-because when I looked back and was like "Who got my back on this"? Ain't nobody have my fuckin back. So soon as that shit wrapped I called my agent and I was like, "Look, I'm never coming home no more, you guys be good. Peace". I left my agency alone and shit [and] said fuck all that acting shit. I'ma go in and grind on this fuckin album-cause I was mad at Def Jam for-I wasn't really mad at Def Jam. You know what? It's like being mad at your parents for getting divorced but they had to do it.

Oh.

Method Man : You know what I'm saying-but they had to do it? So that's why I was mad at Def Jam basically for getting divorced; I wasn't necessarily hating on my label or no shit-but I was very mad at how that album got treated. But I had to understand because they was getting divorced-they was going through a divorce at the time; everybody was leaving; everybody swimming.

I got you, so-

Method Man : Fuck y'all ni**as! You fuckin writing pieces of shit man! Ya'll ni**as ain't shit man! Ya culture raping ass muthafuckas! Fuckin bastard! Y'all ni**as need to be fuckin tried and fuckin convicted.

Meth, so the film and acting stuff is pretty much on the back burner-no new stuff in the works?

Method Man : Man fuck y'all ni**as! Hell no!

(laughs) OK.

Method Man : Y'all ain't even getting a fuckin album. Fuck ya'll ni**as! I ain't giving my shit to nobody to review; go get it in stores, you sons of bitches, and review it. Buy shit first, give me that and then review my shit you fuckin suckas!

OK. Listen I feel your energy-going strong with the album-do you feel any pressure at all to deliver a Tical-like-

Method Man : Hell fuckin no! you know why? Cause my back against the muthafuckin wall, I ain't got shit to lose ni**a; if they gon drop me they gon fuckin drop me; if the album don't sell they gon fuckin drop me. You know what I'm saying? So fuck it ni**a, I'm balling for the wall. I'm just gon make something that I'm proud of and shit and I can just pull my dick out and be like "Yeah I did that. I did that; that was for me right there. Fuck the rest of y'all".

[Chill Will]

Interviu Pack FM --- > http://www.hiphopgame.com/index2.php3?page=packfm3

[Koma]

Status Ain't Hood Interviews Lupe Fiasco

Cue the smoke machines and the simulated rain

The last time I interviewed Lupe Fiasco, I did it for Pitchfork. This time, as soon as he saw me, he said, "I don't even know why I'm talking to you guys," and he brought up every problem he had with Sean Fennessey's Pitchfork review of his album and the 7.9 rating that it got. This was on the 28th floor of the Atlantic Records office building on Monday. One floor down, Diddy was doing a photo shoot or something, and all these office workers were scrambling around stressing out about how to keep Diddy happy while I was waiting for Lupe to finish up his Japanese phone interviews. Lupe operates within the same pop universe as Diddy, but he's staked out a different corner of it; he's the type of review who reads the review of his album on an indie-rock website and tells you everything he doesn't like about it. If this interview is a little confusing on paper, it's because Lupe talks a mile a minute, and he'll abandon what he's talking about mid-sentence if something else occurs to him. I did the interview a few days after Billboard erroneously reported low first-week sales for Food & Liquor, his first album, when Best Buy forgot to send in their sales report for the week.

I wanted to ask you about this Billboard thing with Best Buy. It's really weird; I've never heard of this happening before.

This project is the most hilarious thing; the industry can't even believe a lot of the stuff that's going on with this project. Either we've paid for something or we know someone. They have Billboard pulling down their numbers for the week and re-putting them back up. When they were like, "Lupe gets 57,000" everyone was like, "Yay, he failed!" People were rejoicing in my failure.

People meaning Byron Crawford?

Byron Crawford, he's whatever. Just in general, a lot of the Lupe skate-rap, that's whatever, nerdiness, look at his homo album cover, those people were like, "See? See what happens? There's no room for that." And then it was like, oh, sorry to mention Best Buy didn't turn in their numbers. Oh, and by the way, he was the number one selling artist at Best Buy. Oh, it's the number one rap album in the country. Oh, it's the number two R&B album in the country and it's the number eight overall. For that to happen within two or three days, it was like ooh. You had blogs and websites blasting it because they got the ability to get it up quick, so they was like, "Lupe Fiasco flops." Then two days later, they gotta put up another one, "Oh, the grandiose performance of Lupe Fiasco," and all the wording's changed. So it's just whatever. It just shows the facetiousness of the music business.

But based on that, how much do record sales matter to you personally?

I don't really care. I expect the album to do 700,000 at the end of the day, overall. That's the way I look at it. I had dinner with Jay-Z and Nas, and Jay was like, "Reasonable Doubt did 34,000 its first week and it took umpteen years for it to go platinum." Same thing with Illmatic. And it was like, "But look at where we are, at the movement we've started." He was telling me how when they finally got they numbers, Dame called a meeting with MTV, and he was like, "You see? Now let's really talk!" They knew what they had accomplished. They had accomplished sparking a movement, and it led to what it is right now. So I'm cool. I'm happy. It's not even about me. When I tell people I'm cool, I'm good. When Jay-Z said I was nice and respected me as a parallel MC, you can't tell me nothing. I'm more worried about my company, the placement of my company. I got mine as a rapper five years ago. That's why I don't need to go on your show and freestyle, I don't need to do this mixtape, I don't need to do this battle. For me, I have nothing to prove. I don't care if you don't believe it. I'm good. My next thing is to put out the next two albums, and then my mission is complete.

So you're going to do three albums and then that's it?

There's some things in between those albums, like groups and stuff like that, collaborative efforts that might happen. But as far as solo albums, Lupe Fiasco's dot dot dot, that's it.

What are you going to do after that?

Run my company. First & Fifteenth, we got Gemini, who's rolling out right now; his video's on every hour on the hour on MTV. Then Shayla G, a female MC. Then you got Risque, an R&B group. Got First & Fifteenth/BMG publishing, got F&F Studios. Righteous Kung-Fu, which is all my fashion and sneakers and stuff like that. So it's stuff to do. I'm not finna just fade away. But as an artist, you just get sick of it, tired of trying to tell these execs that it's more than radio. All they want is 500,000,000 in audience, and then you turn around and got a Chingy, who's got the number one record in the country for weeks, come out and I beat him with three records that didn't do anything on Billboard. The highest I think we got was like fiftysomething. But we were doing so much work in other areas; we were galvanizing the movement. We were making things happen that they couldn't see, that they couldn't understand. You get tired of trying to explain it to them. So now, we going to keep doing what we knew we was doing from before.

Do you think it makes sense to make plans this far in advance at a time when the music industry is floundering?

The music industry is wack. I think we got too caught up in the numbers. I don't really think people were selling back in the day like that. People would come out and go platinum, and that's it. People would come out and go gold. What happened was people start setting the bar too high. You start getting 50 Cent and Eminem, people putting up massive, crazy numbers, and people started to make that the bar. Independently, 100,000 is gold. That'll get you a record label at a record company. You look at that with a whole company behind it, that's failure because you didn't sell as much as X. But yeah, three albums; that's all I want to do.

On "Daydreamin'," the part where you go into the video description, obviously you're being satirical. But I have this idea, and you can tell me if I'm wrong, that there's this exhilaration in your voice when you're saying this stuff. You're talking about these cliches, but the reason they became cliches is that they have this fantastic weight to them and it's really cool to see someone hold up their chains slow-motion through the flames.

At one point, it was cool. You see that visually and it's cool, but it has no weight. Even in reality, it has no weight. Nothing on this planet is real at the end of the day. What I believe is that everything here is just a test. It really has no bearing unless you ingest it and make it a part of you, like "I need this watch because this watch is a part of who I am. I need this chain because it's part of who I am, this gun, this cocaine," as opposed to being something that satellites around you. If I got to shoot the video that I wanted to shoot, that statement was made from the director of the video. This was my visual for it. It wasn't Lupe Fiasco saying this; it was a bandleader guy. I don't know if you've ever seen the last Jamiroquai video where it was the devil, and he was dancing around and touching stuff and making stuff happen. He was this real zany-looking character, and that's the idea that I had for this one scene. It's weird because it really happened, but it sounds so ludicrous, that you would pretty this stuff up like that. And they really do. It still happens to this day. You'll be on set, and it'll be like, cue the smoke! OK, now look tough! Gimme anger! Gimme anger! Now hold up the chain! It's to the point now where it's the thing to do. As a rapper, you have a chain on in the video, and it's like look at me! It's ludicrous. If you look at that through this positively conscious eye, you know what that means. At the end of the day, it means nothing. You look at the G-Unit album cover when they were shooting, it's like come on, man.

All the G-Unit album covers always look like they're painted. I don't know what kind of filters they have on those cameras or what, but they look like they're not supposed to look real.

But the act of that, that that's what you're promoting and you really mean it, you almost can't take it seriously. But that's the danger, because you have to. People really do. People will be in the hood with their gun and their chain, and they're out there because Jeezy made it cool to hustle and this is how you look when you hustle and it motivates you to hustle and to shoot someone. It's projected through the music. I don't knock it because of Arnold Schwarzenegger and everybody else, but you can also argue the point that they're not real. They actually sit and talk about how that's not real and how they dressed up for that part and went and learned from real gangstas how to dress and act and talk like a real gangsta. The social situation and the effect that music has on it is really damaging. Hip-hop needs to stop for about a month and do a nice inventory, a nice overall of itself and look and see what it's actually affected to see how to proceed.

That's never going to happen, though.

It's not because they're making too much money.

Are they making money, though?

[Points across the room to TV showing MTV] They're making money. The music is a distraction to keep you entertained long enough to get you to the next commercial.

Well, MTV learned a long time ago that music's not enough of a distraction; they've got to show Next marathons or whatever instead.

But music overall is a distraction. Music, sports, all that stuff is a distraction to numb the pain of reality, of what's going on in the world. That's why it was banned. People shunned it. Like jazz, jazz didn't have any real damaging words in it; it didn't tell you to kill anyone. But the atmosphere of the juke joint was different; they drank there, and it took your mind away from what was going on. You supposed to be out there grinding those grains and tending to your farm; you not supposed to be over there playing that music, the devil's music. You supposed to be focusing on what's real. And I think now it's used as a big distraction. I talked about that in a blog I wrote. Even me, even with my upstandingness and inspiration. And Talib Kweli and Mos Def and everybody else, at the end of the day, it's still used as a distraction to keep your mind off of this.

It gets into this echo chamber. Something that I've learned from knowing a few people who make music is that when somebody thinks that something is their best album, it's never their best album. They get into their headspace, people telling them that they're right all the time. Do you ever worry about that happening with you?

You kind of start living in a bubble. You never know the real impact of your music unless you force yourself to participate in arenas which are shunned by your fellow artists. Like the internet; do you know how many rappers aren't on the internet, don't know what's going on, don't care? It's shunned; it's nerdy.

But the internet is its own bubble.

Yeah, the internet is its own bubble, but the regular world is too big. On the internet, it's focused and concentrated, so you can go to that one site or that one blog or interview or chatroom and get a bunch of people commenting on something: the hate, the love. In the world, if you just walk around and expect people to walk up to you, you'll never catch it. It's too much variation in the world. I know people who don't know who Jay-Z is, so how would he sit down and get a real reaction? It would be like, "Yo Jay-Z! Your album is dope!" And that's all you hear. But you never get a real good dissection of how you're affecting people. I was sitting down with Nas, and Nas was telling me how in the Illmatic days or whatever, this little kid walked up to him out the blue like "Yo, Nas! I got my Philly!" And this kid didn't come up to his waist. He was telling Big, like, "Yo, man, our music is really affecting people, and this ain't cool!" And then Big was telling him that he shouldn't feel guilty, that it's not his fault or whatever. But Nas was like, " Nah, it is!" These are his words that went through all the hip-hop heads saying he was dope. They weaved and ducked and bobbed and had this kid proud to be smoking Phillies. That space where it's like airport, car, car, hotel, phone interviews, by the time you're done everything's closed so there's no way to really participate. If you want to go somewhere, they gotta close it down or section you off from everyone. So you really lose that participation with the world; you don't get a real critique, or it comes from people who are professional critics. If you don't participate in that arena where you get to see what the amateur or the average person thinks of you other than a two-second phone call at a radio station, you don't get a real sense of the impact that you have until later on. I made a statement, and it's true, even though I got put in XXL's Negro Please section for it. I was trying to figure out why I always had a thing in high school of shunning women because I didn't trust them, and I was like, "I wonder why that is."

Ice Cube. We talked about this in the last interview.

Ice Cube! Because of "A ***** Iz a *****"! I remember listening to that and being eight years old. I don't think Ice Cube knew that he'd have that similar effect, weaving through all that up until now, to be able for me to have the epiphany years and years later that I could sit and trace it back to that. Just imagine how many kids fifteen, twenty years from now, that'll be like "Yeah, I remember that record" or take the time to figure out why they do the things they do. "I remember playing Grand Theft Auto, and that's how I learned to steal cars."

Changing gears completely, "The Instrumental," that's the guy from Onelinedrawing singing on it?

I guess. That was Mike Shinoda's addition. I liked the sample, and Mike was like, "Yo, he's my friend, I'm gonna get him to come in and re-sing it." We had trouble clearing it, though, even after he re-sung it. But we got everything cleared, and that was Mike. Once I got done my verses, Mike took that record and just went into a dungeon with it. I didn't really know the history of it like that.

You have a lot of F&F producers on the record, and that's one of the things that people didn't like about it, like in the Pitchfork review. Did you worry about that?

Not at all. You can go get a bunch of Neptunes records or Kanye records or well-known records, but for me, it was like, let me give the album to my people. Let me give the album to Pro, who I've been with for five years. Let me give it to Soundtrakk, who I've been with for half that time. Let me give them their time. When DMX's first album came out, nobody knew who Lil Rob was, nobody knew who Dame Grease was, but they captured his sound and set him up. That's what appeals to me. Every beat on the album, it could be the weakest track on the beat tape. I could've had this Kanye record or this Pharrell record. I was trying to get one of those spacey way-out Pharrell records, and he wouldn't make it for me. He always gave me Tribe Called Quest because that's what he thinks I like. I don't know one Tribe Called Quest song by heart. I don't own one album. I don't own any De La Soul like that; that's not my era. I grew up on Nas. I grew up on Jay-Z. I grew up on Big Pun. I grew up on Pharoahe Monch. I grew up on Mos Def. That's the sound that I liked. I rapped over Premier beats. I didn't rap over Teddy Riley beats from when he was making breakbeats; it ain't my era. I'm mirroring my era. And it's hints of different things on there, different genres. Stuff like "American Terrorist," I'm really happy about because it's like flamenco jazz. To know that Chick Corea was a part of it, that appealed to me beyond what the album sounds like. I like that beat, and this is what came out of that.

So you think of it less as a collection of tracks and more as this intertwined, cohesive thing?

Yeah. I couldn't even put all the records that I wanted on the album. At the final hour, it would be like, I couldn't use that record because of the sample clearance or whatever. And it got to the point where I lost the control of it. Like, I'm 80% on the album. But if you got your core of what you really like, then that's what it is. Food & Liquor is five years old, and during that five years, it probably changed direction six times. During the last two weeks of putting the album together, it probably changed two times, what we were going to do and what people wanted to talk about. If I play people the record of what Food & Liquor was in 2001 or 2002, they'd be like, "God, he sounds like Fabolous. It sounds like Jadakiss." Like "Look at my chain, look at my watch, I'll kill you."

So you talked about killing people.

Yeah, but this is what people don't understand about me: I've had a gun since I was like twelve. My gun, given to me by my father who was in the military, who taught me how to shoot when I was four, how to shoot AK-47s and take apart M16s. I used to write my raps with my 9 millimeter right there. I understood what it was for, and it went from the stage of being like, "I have a gun, and I'm not going to kill you, but I'll defend myself" to getting caught up in the industry: "Yo, I'll shoot you." And then it got to the point where you can't explain that to people, you can't explain your history of it. Everybody's not going to read that one interview where you do, so I'd rather just not talk about it at all.

I wanted to talk about the album cover. You look like Silver Surfer.

Yeah, that's cool. It's from the back of this skateboard. A skateboard company called Instant Winner came out with these skateboards influenced by Japanese culture and Japanese animation. And the way they had it, it was four decks, and you could put them together like a train car. It was these two ninjas asleep on this one, this old geisha right here, and this one was this man floating with an accordion, and everything that he had around him was floating. And I like Dragonball. I like looking like a Super Saian, like I can throw fire. I want to fly. And it's not even childish because I still want to do it. I'd love to conjure a fireball and throw it at a tree. That cover's for me. And it harkens back to that Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon thing on accident, and I love Pink Floyd. So I tell people the cover's not for you; the cover's for me. I do a lot of stuff for people. I make sure that I have a different shirt on in every interview, that I'm here, that I'm there, I'm at this performance, I'm always trying to entertain. But this cover's mine; I don't care if you like it or not. But the inside of the booklet is for you. I know what people are going to like and what people are not going to like to a certain extent, and I told people, you might hate this cover, but when you see the inside, then you gonna love it. And that's what happened. People forgot about the cover. But at the same time, I'll get an Entertainment Weekly interview just about the cover, one interview just about that. As an artist, it's certain stuff that you have to have your own, something that you can be proud of. Some people have no control over what they do. The art department was like... But I was like, "Look at my contract. I can do what I want." A lot of people don't have that, so if I got it, I'm gonna exercise it. And the next one is going to be ridiculous as well. But the booklet, the music, that's for you. This is mine. When you do a magazine photo shoot, you have no control over the photo's they're going to pick; they just put it out. When I got the cover of Billboard, I almost got sued by Reebok because they didn't even know I had Nikes on. But that cover, I had to fight for every single thing on it. The law department threw mad stuff at me, like, "You gotta get clearance for all this stuff." I was like, "OK," and I came back with clearances from Nintendo, Levis, this toy company, everything.

How do you feel about working in what seems to be a fundamentally corrupt system?

Everything is fundamentally corrupt. Everything human beings make, to a certain extent, is fundamentally corrupt, the music business especially. The music business, hip-hop in particular, thrives on negativity. So it's good to be here knowing that you're fighting the good fight and to have the business end locked down to the point where they know you're the antithesis of the music business, that you're fighting it, that you want to bring it down, but they have to respect it because contractually you can do it. They can make a fuss and holler, but it's like, "Yo, I got a contract, and the contract says I can do whatever I want, even if it means ridiculing you from the inside out." And they expect it to only go so far, but then it becomes the subject of interviews, on TV and everywhere else, and people really start looking at the music business. You can blackball, you can do whatever, but you're making money and you're making noise for a company. We've helped this company in certain areas, to get into places where they couldn't get into.

Like what?

Like helping their relationship with retailers. They'll use me as the face of Atlantic Records. You couldn't put this person in there because he looks like the gangsta or they can't understand him, so they'll put me in there, the nice articulate guy to shuck and jive for them, and it makes it that much easier for them. They relate Atlantic Records to Lupe now, so they can sneak in this record or that one. I'm aware of that because I'm a businessman and I do the same thing, piggyback this into that. But as long as I can help one person, I'm good.

[sunrah]

The Death of Proof
Bare Witness
What really happened with D12’s Proof that tragic night in Detroit’s CCC Club? Fresh off the witness stand, Mudd, an old friend of Proof’s spoke with XXLMAG.COM, and told it as he saw it with his own eyes.




Mudd, whose government name is Reginald Moorer, was one of three people that accompanied Deshaun �Proof� Holton to the CCC the night of his death. On the condition of anonymity, Mudd spoke to XXL in the July 2006 issue about what happened that tragic night at the CCC club. The investigation is still ongoing. After several months, Mudd has decided to come forward to tell the entire story about the night that went horribly wrong, resulting in the death of two men, his gun, and the testimony he gave in court this week.

Mudd’s friendship with Proof dates back 15 years to an Osborn High School lunch table. He was a freshman at Osborn when he met Proof, who was a senior at the time. A few years later, Mudd joined a group with Proof and another rapper, Thyme, called 5-Elementz (5ElA). The group gained notoriety around Detroit in the mid ’90s. They all worked at Maurice Malone’s Hip Hop Shop and— with the support of Malone—moved to New York in search of a record deal. Proof ultimately left the group to join Eminem on the road. After a falling out, Proof and Mudd smoothed out their differences in 2004, and the two frequently hung out when Proof was in Detroit. Mudd raps on Proof’s Searching for Jerry Garcia. Here is his story.

What was your relationship with Proof like most recently?
It was like five years of catching up on all the experiences he had been through. It was still the big brother/little brother type relationship. We had a routine: Wild Woody’s on Wednesday, Tuesday was Northern Lites, Mondays we would hang at a titty bar call Jon-Jon’s, Saturday was the State Theater. If I wanted to see him or find him, I knew where to go. We would play pool at Bookies.

In the last few months before his death, was there anything different about Proof?
It was different. He was starting to get more focused. He had stopped all the pills and weed smoking. Before, we were deep into metaphysics. Anything that he was doing, he was fully aware of the concepts. Proof [was] not only a very intelligent person, he was very spiritual as well.

Tell us about that night. How did it start off?
Once we started hanging, we started hanging until the sun came up. After hours was nothing out of the norm for us, we had been doing that since ’95. It was a Monday night. I text him. He says, �I’m at the Coliseum. Me, Horny Mack and Chop.� The Coliseum is a strip tease establishment. We at the titty bar chillin’. Got the booth, drank a little, hollered at the DJ. Then we go to the Rolex, another strip tease establishment, and then we go to the CCC. I had been there numerous times before that. It was kind of a shady spot. Cats always had they pistols. We hip-hop and from Detroit, but you still got to keep strapped, because Detroit is a gangsta-ass city, and there’s a lot of cats that want to play gangsta here. Certain cats get down and the East Side has the reputation for being the grimier side of town.

What happened when you went inside Triple C?
For some reason they searched everybody, but they didn’t search me. I had my pistol on me, of course. We had some drinks, everybody buzzed up. It was a private establishment and it wasn’t really that crowded that night. The guy that I [now] know as Keith Bender was playing pool with Proof. Horny Mack [another person in Proof’s entourage] was watching the game. I was kinda pissed there wasn’t no ladies in the house. I just chilled, watched the game for a minute and went to the other side of the bar. We were getting ready to leave. We walked out the door. We saw two girls from the Rolex, one I was hollering at previously.

I go back in and I didn’t get searched again. Proof started hollering at one of the girls. I started hollering at the other girl. We kickin’ it. I’m macking, I’m doing the Mudd thing. Meanwhile, to my left I see Bender and Proof having some words. They started to get a little loud. I told old girl, �Hold on for a second. Let’s try to calm shit down.� It wasn’t anything out of the ordinary for Proof to get drunk and fight. [He had] that personality, the Derrty Harry, the scrap-happy type of individual.

How was Keith Bender acting at this point?
�I don’t care who the fuck you are,� that’s what Bender was saying to Proof. Even with [Proof] being on the cover of Rolling Stone, he still would go around to different spots and show love in the city. Of course Bender knows who he is. He went to Osborn with him—on that side of town, that’s the main high school. They know each other and I’m sure they’ve had dialogue before this. Everybody knows somebody from somebody. At the time, I didn’t notice, [but] this was pretty much the Osborn crowd, just grown.

They in the argument, so we separate them. I remember my last words to Bender were �Calm down, it ain’t that serious.� He had his arms folded, leaning up against the back of the bar. Proof was talking to L.A., the owner of the club, trying to smooth the shit out. That’s when Keith Bender walked around me. Nobody’s really watching him because we thinking the shit is cool.

Bender walks around me, and walks up behind Proof and punches him in the face with his right hand. Everybody starts backing up like, �Get out the way, let them fight.� There were people up there with Bender. We were all going to fight, but this discrepancy was between these two gentlemen. All of a sudden I hear some shots coming from my right side, behind me. I look up and see it’s Mario Etheridge shooting in the air, I guess to break up the fight.

How did you react when you heard the first shots?
Reflex-wise, I put my hand on my gun. It’s already escalating and now muthafuckas shooting. I’m going for my pistol. Proof knew I had my pistol. Proof tackles me across the room onto the pool table. As he’s pushing me back. I’m looking at Etheridge. He’s shooting in the air. At the same time Proof’s pushing me. I’m telling him, �He’s shooting in the air, don’t sweat it.� He’s like, �Mudd, give me the gun.� I tell him, �He ain’t trying to kill us.� Proof slams me into the back of the pool table. I fall back, he pulls my pistol from my waistband. He walks across to where he was fighting with Bender and he shoots in the air, I guess answering the shots that Mario put in the air. And so with that, Bender attacks him. They’re struggling. I’m getting off the pool table because my back is fucking killing me, so I’m kind of slow reacting, getting over to the side of the room. Before I could get over there, Mario had came through and started shooting in the direction of Proof and his cousin, Keith Bender. I see them both drop. There’s smoke everywhere. Mario Etheridge leaves. I’m moving people out of the way. I see Proof lying there hit, blood everywhere. Keith Bender is lying there bleeding, blood slowly running out of his head.

What happened next?
I’m reaching for my phone. It’s in the car. Horny Mack has the keys. I’m like, �Unlock the door, let me get my phone so I can call 911.� I go get my phone, I come back in. I look and Bender’s body is gone. I’m looking around and the back door is open. I see Proof, I’m checking for the vitals. Ain’t none. There was this look in his eye, he wasn’t there anymore. I still couldn’t call 911. It was more so shock than anything. I’m normally cool under pressure-type situations, but it was one of those things. We couldn’t do nothing, say anything. Chop [the third man in Proof’s entourage] was there. He was crying. Chop’s looking at me like, Where are those keys? I’m still looking at Proof. Chop’s screaming. I’m like, �Who got the keys? Horny Mack?� And he’s like, �I don’t got the keys.� We were going to get his body out and get him to the hospital.

How were the other people in the club acting at this point?
We heard doors lock and I heard a girl’s voice say, �This what we gonna say y’all. We gonna say Proof got shot at Coney Island [an all-night diner].� Me hearing that, I’m looking at my pistol on the ground next to Proof’s left hand. I grabbed my pistol. I’m thinking, Y’all can say what you want to say. You already killed the man. But y’all gonna leave this nigga and dump him somewhere? I’m not going to live with that. I know I’m gonna live and tell the story the correct way. I leave [and] take my gun with me out the back door. I’m watching to see if anybody [is] trying to stop me. As I head up the street, Horny Mack comes walking between the side of these two houses. I’m hurt and I’m not walking too fast. I see Horny holding his hand. He said he was hit, he got shot in the hand. I’m like, �Damn, Horny, what we gonna do?� Horny bent the corner and went back around toward the club. I went straight. I knew I wasn’t going to cooperate with the story. I ain’t never been that cat. They want me to cooperate so ain’t nobody going to jail. I was like, Fuck that.

I’ve never been shocked before or terrified beyond the capacity of rational thought. I couldn’t remember where the fuck I had parked my car. I’m in a state of shock. I called my cousin who is a lawyer, told her, �This is what happened. It was my gun. Am I in any kind of trouble?� I ain’t trying to go jail. I don’t want nobody to come looking for me in retaliation. I know they trying to corroborate a story. I don’t know what to do.

How did you carry on after that?
The next day I didn’t go to work. My cousin called in. She basically gave me the best legal advice: �There’s two things you do. You can either go in and tell a story, or you can say nothing at all. Homicide detectives are going to come looking for you.� I waited it out for a day. My phone is blowing up. 6 o’clock in the morning. It’s the first thing on the news, �Rapper Proof was killed along with another man and police are looking for Bizarre.� I don’t know how they got Bizarre’s name. Maybe the name Mudd sounded bizarre. Bizarre was in Atlanta. [He] ain’t even hangin’ in spots like that. That was kind of a signal, somebody’s talking to police and to media. I’m like, Damn, it’s [only] a matter of time.

I just chilled out with my cousin for a minute and I didn’t go home the first night. The second night I did come home, but I didn’t know if anybody was looking for me, so I parked around the corner and walked to my place and went in through the back door. I went to work the next day. I was just kind of waiting to see what’s going to happen.

I got a phone call from Salaam Wreck. I met Salaam through Proof, but I don’t know him like that. I know he’s the DJ for D12. He’s like, �I heard you was there.� I kind of blew him off. Then Swift calls me like, �Mudd, what happened? We talked to Horny Mack and we heard you was there. Come talk to us. We all at the studio. Em’s here and we want to talk.� After 11, I called back to the studio. I think Swift was there and Salaam Wreck. Swift’s been my man since back in the day and he’s always been a standup guy. I end up telling the story all over again.

So how did the detectives actually get in touch with you?
That next morning Proof’s cousin, Dwayne, called me and he told me about this lawyer, David Gorash, and [said] if I’m in any kind of trouble, they had my back. All of a sudden [there’s] a wrongful death suit, and muthafuckas talking about suing. I went down to the studio to talk to some of the artists from D12 and David Gorash. The rumor was Proof shot Bender in the face and Mario came over and shot and killed Proof. That ain’t the fuck what happened, but that’s what everybody’s saying. I even heard Horny Mack tell that story, from another party. And I’m like, �He was standing right there. He saw what I saw.� Everyone was asking me, �What happened to Proof’s jewelry?� He always had his jewelry when we were hanging out. His Rolex, P-chain and pinky ring. We talking a lot of jewelry that’s worth a lot of money. I was like, �I don’t know. Whoever stayed, you might want to ask them.�

Word is out, Mudd was there. People would see us together like all the time. It’s out in the street now. It wasn’t out in the news or papers yet. David Gorash asked me to talk to someone in homicide. At the time, we didn’t know ballistic-wise who shot who. We still don’t know to this day.

I went down to 1300 Beaubien [Detroit Police headquarters]. I made a statement. The detectives said they would keep it under wraps and I didn’t have to worry about my statement getting involved in the media. At the same time, they’re cops. I don’t trust them. I feel fucked up for going to cops in the first place. But here it is, I’m in a catch-22 situation. I’m worrying about people seeing me and knowing me from that spot, because the East Side of Detroit is a very small place. I am already thinking of what the consequences may be, because I’m the only one telling my story. Later, I heard there’s another person telling the story exactly how I did. They still didn’t tell me who it was. I don’t even think I met this person. I’m feeling out here by myself. I know Chop knows them and Chop ain’t going to say nothing. I heard at the time Horny Mack’s story changed so many different times so he wasn’t credible. Regardless, I was going to tell the truth. I go down there to talk to homicide and they said they wasn’t going to say shit. I go to work and people [are] still calling me. I’m blowing off cats left and right. I asked the guys from D12 and the lawyer had suggested that none of them repeat what I told them.

Tell me about the funeral.
Time goes by, the wake comes up, funeral comes up. Thyme and I spoke at the funeral. Even in the obituary it mentions us. Mama, Proof’s mother, included us in there. You don’t think about that type of shit everyday—it was an honor. The funeral was touching. I hadn’t cried like that since I was a kid. It was more so mental with me, because I was there. Horny Mack was at the funeral and we were the only people who witnessed it. It was one of those things that was just tragic and fucked up all because of nothing.

Backing up for a minute, you said you recognized Mario Etheridge from high school?
I didn’t know that I knew Mario. You know, you see people later in life and they’re grown up and they gain weight? I remember him young. I look different from high school too. I had a nose ring, dreadlocks, big hoop earrings, baggy pants. I looked in the yearbook, and low and behold, there he was. I remember him from high school. He was chubby then.

Then I found out that Proof and Keith Bender were at Osborn together. Everybody in the place knows each other from somewhere or are familiar with each other. It almost seemed like this was some high school grudge shit, as petty as it is. You start investigating more and it’s like, Damn, this shit should have never happened. Detroit’s [the] hater capitol of the world and muthafuckas wanna take shit to the next level. It escalated for nothing.

Why did you decide to tell part of the story anonymously to XXL several months ago?
I decided to do it once everything started going wrong. There’s two men tragically lost, and Bender’s family is thinking about how much money he’s going to get. Bender started the whole thing. And then Bender’s cousin started shooting. And here it is, we outnumbered. I know these muthafuckas are going to say whatever they can to keep Mario from going to jail.

Sooner or later, it was going to come out that I was there, so I might as well for Proof’s sake, for his family’s sake and for his kids’ sake. He’s got five kids. You want to take money from his children? You want to take money from his loved ones, from his mother? That’s fucked up. I felt obligated, morally. [For] someone I’ve known that long and saw him killed, I got to say something.

As far as testifying, when did they contact you?
I didn’t hear about the case until the day they subpoenaed me. Three homicide detectives came up to my job on Monday (September 18). One detective, Charles Zwicker, I recognized from the first time. He wrote the statement down. I’m calm now that I see a familiar face. He’s like, �You’re being subpoenaed. You got to appear in court tomorrow morning at 8:45.� They’re like, �You’re the last witness.�

I really couldn’t sleep that night. I got down there and walked in and the detective who subpoenaed me told me to step outside. �Look over your statement, and make sure you don’t talk to nobody.�

I step up to the stand. The prosecutor examined me and his defense cross-examined me. After I gave the testimony, Proof’s mother came in on the second half. They brought the gun out and asked me if I recognized the pistol. I knew everything about my gun, even my serial number. I told them, �Glock 32, semi-automatic, mid-size .357 caliber.�

A guy came up to me who was on the stand when I first walked in. I knew he looked familiar. He introduced himself as L.A. �I’m the club owner,� he [said]. �Ain’t no love lost, you did the right thing.� The defense had asked me, Did I know how Proof had got to the hospital? Turns out L.A. took him to the hospital, at least that’s what he told me. He told me ain’t no love lost. He loved Proof, that was his boy and he still has the chess set Proof gave him. Proof lost a game of chess, and he had to buy him a crystal chess set. He’s like, I still got the blood-stained shirt with his blood all over it. That was my man, I loved him. You ain’t got to worry.

[preacher]

asta nu prea e interviu d-ala ... putea ramane acolo unde era....

[sunrah]

Un topic legat de cate un artist e de-ajuns.. putea fi postat la cel despre PROOF.

[HateMeNow]

Everready Exclusive: Tech N9ne Breaks Down His New Album

You would think the rap game is based on skill but if that is the case then how come Tech N9ne is so underrated? How can a rapper who can rap to the beat of a machine gun, rap in quadruple time, and be so creative get overlooked? The true underground fans know how good Tech is, just ask the people who follow his music from KCMO, to the rest of the country and places like Australia and all over the world. If the rap game was really based on talent this man would have sold millions upon millions and be higher up on the hiphop ladder


Siccness: I’m just going to ask one question today homie. Break down “Everready:The Religion?” After you tell us about the album feel free to close it out with what ever else you want to say homie!

Tech N9ne: It starts off with this skit called “Blest” and the reason we spell it B.L.E.S.T. is because there was five of us in a car wreck last year March 23rd ’05. We were coming out of Billings Montana on the way to Spokane Washington on tour with Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. There was a blizzard at 8:00 in the morning and the skit tells you how we slid and flipped five times in a fifteen passenger van and everything was totaled but we only had a couple of scratches. The album starts off with that and behind that we have been in God’s graces and ever since then we have been partying hard. The first eleven songs is straight partying from “Riot Maker” to “No Can Do” to “Welcome To The Mid-West” to “Bout To Bubble” to “Jelly Sickle” to Caribou Lou” and the first eleven songs is just bangin’. Everybody has a booty song but I got a titty song called “Flash.” Then I got the song “Night And Day” which was the song I did for the movie “Alpha Dog.” After that you will here a voice say “You are beginning your decent” meaning the album is about to slow down and get dark. The song “Come Gangsta” is dedicated to the people who say “Come Gangsta” then you here this voice say “You have entered The Melancholy Maze” and then you here me, Brotha Lynch, and my boy Delima on the song called “My World” and it is wonderful and it is one of the gems on my album. Then you here “Running Out Of Time” where I am really trying to make this music pop all the way and do something nice for my Mom because she is sick. She has just been diagnosed with Lupus and I just want to hurry up and do something really big for her. Sometimes I wish God would just come down and take his angel because me and my mom don’t belong down here because we love too hard for these people. I got liberate me on my arms for that reason but my kids will keep me here. If it wasn’t for my kids I would be gone brother! “:Running Out Of Time” is about that and the race against time before my mom goes and God takes his angel. I really want to show her that I made it. Right after that there is a song called “The Rain” and I call the road the rain because it is gloomy with out my children. It is about me being on the road touring so much that I miss all my kids birthdays and I just have to send money and gifts. I am on the road hustling for my family! I moved them out to LA two years ago and we live out in Sherman Oaks California where all the big houses are so I have to stay on the road to pay that bill. They are happy out there and don’t want to move back but I’m about to move back out to Kansas City because me and my Wife are separated. Right when we moved out there I had to go on a 56 city tour and I lost her because she felt like I left her hanging out there by herself but I was on the road doing my thing. That is the casualty of the game and I am married to my fans now and “The Rain” is talking about all of that. On that song it has my little girl who spit this when she was eleven and she spit a 16 bar on me on the second verse of “The Rain.” That song is a tear jerker dog! After you leave the Melancholy Maze you hear a voice say “Welcome Back, Party Hard.” Then there is a song called “Fuck’em Girl” with me, Big Kriz Calico, and Kutt Kalhoun just killing. Right after that we got “The Beast” that was on Madden ’06 but this one is the album version. The last song “The King, The Clown, & The G” will explain the whole album concept. The King, The Clown, and The G are all of my characteristics. The King attitude came from me being high headed and they called me a narcissist, but that aint me. They can call me a narcissist because of self love and yeah I love myself, I love God and it is all beautiful. The Clown is the party animal in me and nothing is wrong in the eyes of this nigga like partying with many bitches, ecstasy, liquor and doing all kinds of crazy shit. The G recognizes family values and is somebody that went thru a lot of shit in the past and knows family values. Then the android voice says “Goodbye.” I just walked you thru the whole album homie. Then there is a bonus disc called “Strange Music Library” and it has music from all of us. We are all on there killing it! It is just extra music man. Now I just want to tell people two words “Celebrate Life.”

sursa: siccness.net

[HateMeNow]

Tech N9ne Interview

West Coast Rydaz: So it's been four years since Absolute Power....

Tech N9ne: Four years brother!

West Coast Rydaz: Why did it take so long to release a new album?

Tech N9ne: I'll tell you exactly why it took so long man. because since 2002 we been touring like madmen dogg. Know what I'm sizzlin? Doing all these shows like we do, we tour like a rock band. Im talking about we just came back from Copenhagen, Denmark doing the festival with Tool, Kanye West, Bob Dylan and Guns and Roses, George Clinton. Just over there like crazy! We just got off 10 dates with DMX and Bone. It just keeps going. All year round! Me and Paul Wall, Fire and Ice tour. You never know, me and Chingy and the Ying Yang Twins out in Salt Lake City, and then we hit this other one. It's just a neverending story. It's wonderful but at the same time it's hard to do an album in between all these shows. We stay on the road man! It took us a while. On the westcoast we had to go to enterprise and do like 6 songs. In the midwest we had to come back to Kansas City and do 6 more songs. Just doing them pieces. I try to show my fans as much love as I can because they ain't gotta give a damn about who the hell I am. They pay to hear my life, cause I write my life homie. They give a damn to come pay their hard earned money and see me at shows, to buy my CD's, so I show em even more love to come to they town. Like why would you be in Casper Wyoming? Cause yall buy my albums, why wouldn't I thank you for it? That's what I do man. It's hard to do albums while you doing that.

Tech N9ne: It took a while and I guess it was meant to happen cause I made a masterpiece brother. THis is a big statement I'm about to make. This album is my best work ever, that's big to say next to AngHellic and Absolute Power.

West Coast Rydaz: So this is a double disc?

Tech N9ne: Yes it is, its 20 songs on Everready and then it's 14 on the next disc. It's like we got alot to say man.

West Coast Rydaz: Were you sitting on too many tracks that you liked, you couldn't just narrow it down to 1 cd?

Tech N9ne: Naw man, this is the thing. You got some artists that do 50 to 60 songs and just choose 12 or 15 out of those. I write my life so I never trash anything I write for my album. When I chose a beat, I gotta feel it 100%, I just don't do music. Like that's cool I could make that a hit. Naw I don't do that, I write my life. So everything we write, we gonna use! When I'm writing this other chapter in my life -- like the last chapter was Absolute Power --- and this is another chapter in my life, where things have progressed for Tech N9ne. Therefore I'm gonna write it a different way. It's gonna be different beats. So I don't just do 30 songs and choose 12 dude. If I write 18, I'm gonna use those 18. That's what I had to say to the rest of the people.

West Coast Rydaz: Sounds like it's gonna be worth the wait then, 2 discs!

Tech N9ne: I just can't wait till it go out to press and you get it man. I want you to call me back and say Tech fuck that, yeah that's dope. I wanna know the real because I feel like I do my albums the way I wanna hear em as a fan. I listen to it all the way through. You know how you used to listen to the NWA albums all the way through man? The Public Enemy, DOC, all the way through, or the Eric B and Rakim, the BDP? I'm talking about like that homie. I'm an old school head. I don't wanna just have 3 songs that's a hit on there and that's what you bought it for. I want you to live with this.

West Coast Rydaz: Something you can bump for your whole life huh?

Tech N9ne: Definitely. I could go back to Absolute Power right now, do the same thing. It's a journey. I take pride in putting those albums together. Mood music, it's a roller coaster ride. I coulda called this one, "One Big Clusterfuck" I would've.

West Coast Rydaz: Talk about who is featured on it, and who did production on it?

Tech N9ne: We got E-40 on a song called Jellysickle. My bay area homeboys. Brotha Lynch came through on a song called "My World." He murdered it! When you hear this Brotha Lynch verse...as a matter of fact we on the other line with him right now. He's talking to Travis about hooking up with us. He's on the phone with Siccmade right now, that's crazy. He came through man, and when you hear My World you gonna say damn! My World was originally slated for Brotha Lynch, Eminem, and myself. Within the 6 months it took Brotha Lynch to do it -- it took him 6 months because he was going through some legal thing out there in Sac. Within that 6 months Em lost his wife through divorce and then he lost his best man through death so you gotta feel him. I talked to Kon Artist, like I'm trying to get at Em. He's like we ain't talked to him in 3 months, we don't know where he's at. Paul Rosenburg the whole thing. In Em's place on My World, I put one of my younger homeboys by the name of Dilema. I wanted three lyrical killers on this song, Dilemma was the only other one that I knew. It was between Dilemma and DMX. I put Dilemma in the middle and he murdered it. I gave him his name when he was 14. He's from KCK, I'm from Kansas City, Missouri. He's across the water, Kansas City, Kansas. Dorothy and Toto style. He's hardcode with it.

West Coast Rydaz: Now that you brought up DMX, Is there collaborations with DMX and Bone in the works?

Tech N9ne: Not yet but that was the formal introduction when we did these shows. We just got off them, it was 10. You know how people get a perception of people and be like yeah dude is lost and a demon. The first time I met DMX backstage, the very first show that we did, I didn't see a demon, I saw an angel. That dude got no malicious intent in his eyes. If he got a problem with you, you ain't right. The eyes are the window to the soul. I read em, I could see a demon from a mile away but that wasn't it bro. We kicked it like donkeys, we even said prayers with him before his shows, it was wonderful. He invited us to his house in Arizona. It's about to go down, real recognize real or like I say right recognize right.

West Coast Rydaz: The problems between you and Don Juan, is that situation still the same, is there any chance for a reconciliation or are you just moving forward?

Tech N9ne: Quote me right when I say this, God forgives all. I Know that I'm an angel/demon, so it's like I'm not ready for reconciliation right now, at all. But God forgives all man. If I wanna walk in those footsteps in any way, I'm gonna have to give that dude a hug. But for now I'm cool. I don't see him, I don't talk to him. We did wonderful music. Hopefully he get right within himself because God does forgive all and I got a heart of all. It's nothing. I'm just doing my thing and keep him over there. Out of everybody that was in my past, that's the one nigga I don't wanna see. Me and Diamond got physical. He snuck up behind me at the screening of Tupac Resurrection. Stole on me in the back of my head. My bodygaurd pulled out a gun, I'm like no no no, that's Diamond. Diamond was like my brother but money and fame and all that can make dudes fall apart. Quote me when I say, I still love Diamond. We had problems, physical problems. Me and Don Juan ain't have no physical problems. I'd rather see Diamond over Don Juan was shady. Don Juan wanted to hide stuff from me, I don't appreciate it and I take it personal.

But God forgives all bro, and I just ain't ready to see him right now. I done seen Diamond in the street, since then. LIke wassup nigga, keep going. So I don't know why I feel like that about Juan man, it just something. He's a church boy too that's what makes it so bad. Not church boy saying he soft, I mean he was raised in the church, played drums in the church, played piano, his family is religious just like mine. He shouldn't have been that shady. I don't know if he is that right now, casue I ain't seen him or talked to him in years. But the last time I talked to him I was in LA. It had to be around the Absolute Power time, It was around the I'mma Playa time. They called up to the office cause I had found out that Diamond and them had done a video about me called You Soft. They got a nigga in there with red hair and they beatin him up. So I took it personal, I called they mamas house lookin for em, I'm a real man dude. I ain't a big dude, I ain't a tough guy, but I'm a man. So I'm callin around, lookin for them talkin to they grandmas like how you doin, this is Tech. "Oh Tech I ain't heard from you in years!" I know I'm lookin for Diamond, they heard me and I guess they got the message. They called back and I told them I didn't like it. I told Diamond, I saw the video. He's like what you think about it? I told him I aint like it. Cause you got little niggas in there that ain't got nothing to do with it. This a family fued. Don Juan is the only one said that he apologize back in the day. I guess right then I should've said, I forgive you bro. But I didn't. He did say I'm sorry though, I just remembered. But I ain't ready dude. I got alot of love in my heart, I just don't wanna be around anybody shady. I'm too nice of a person for that. I don't wanna have satan take over me and me do something stupid and have to be away from my kids life. It's personal cause we grew up together. I hope one day I can see him and give him a handshake and a hug and be like wassup nigga keep on movin, it's nothing. I'm sure, that's what kind of dude I am.

West Coast Rydaz: Your featured on San Quinn's upcoming album "From A Boy To A Man"..

Tech N9ne: No doubt man! It's a song called "Rap Music Is All We Got!" You heard it yet?

West Coast Rydaz: Naw Kenny from Done Deal was telling me about it.

Tech N9ne: Man! I'mma tell you, fresh out of the hospital I was sick, coughing! I had laryngitis and everything and I still came through the studio for em! It turned out real nice. I was like Quinn man, if I sound horrible just stop me. But I'm serious, I really wanna do this for you because you been trying to get me in the studio for a minute. Came through man! "Rap Music is All We Got...Rap Music Is All We Got!" [singing] It was alright man! He's a stand up cat. Powerful ass voice, I dig Quinn.

West Coast Rydaz: That's the voice of Frisco right there.

Tech N9ne: Yeah real dudes in the bay. I swear to god I ain't met one nigga in the bay that's shady to me. Niggas be trying to say that Mac Minister is shady. Man when he was around me with Yuk he was the coolest cat, he was laughing the whole time. I think game recognize game. If a nigga don't sense no punk, he ain't gonna treat nobody like a punk. Yukmouth showed me love the first day I met him. Made me an original honorary member of the Regime. I'm first infantry since 1997. I was out there in LA, Yuk met me at Quincy Jones house, they was doing Lunitik Muzik for the Luniz. Heard me rap and said, I'm bout to start this thing called The Regime, I want you to be a part of it. I been down ever since! E-40, toured with him back in the early 90s, him and Lynch Hung, and Mac Mall, Mr. Doctor, Loki and everybody out there. The whole Click. Mugzi, Suga T, all them. I been knowing them for years! And 40 came through at the height of his career and did this free, Jellysickla man. Lynch Hung my brother homie. Ya know! I'm talking about Jayo Felony, my brother. I mean come on man! I ain't never met nobody from the bay that showed me any kind of malicious intent. It's crazy.

West Coast Rydaz: What's the status with you in The Regime? Yuk was saying something about you moving to LA and knock that out a few years ago? Your still one of the main members..

Tech N9ne: No doubt, I'mma tell you. It's impossible to get 2 bosses at the same spot at the same time. When I'm on tour over here and Yuk is overseas doing his thing in New Zealand and everything he does, it's hard for me to get there. So when you hear these mixtapes and you don't hear me it's not because I'm not a part of it - cause I'm a main part of it. Yuk made sure that I was up in there no matter what. I felt so bad that I couldn't be there, cause I'm on tour all the time so on that last mixtape I gave him my first single before it dropped. I'm talking about Jellysickle was a gem for my album, I gave it to Yuk out of love brother. This is yours. He can have anything I got. Everytime I do shows in Cali, he's like Tech man everybody like why Tech ain't involed, why Tech ain't involved. I'm like I know baby, I got you. So I told him if you ever need me to do anything, send the track to Travis and he will make sure I get it and I'll pay studio myself and do the verses. I wanna show him as much love as I can cause he didn't have to show me the love that he did bro. Making me a part of Regime, putting me on his albums. You know he ain't been on one of my albums yet, because we always hustlin and bustlin. He always like Tech man I gotta be on this album. I'm like don't worry! And then time will elapse and he still ain't been on one of my albums and that's my brother! So that's something we as Strange Music just gonna have to slow down for a minute, after Everready come out. Izms is coming out shortly after that. It's an extension of Everready. I'm gonna do a Jellysickle Remix with Yukmouth, Pitbull, Paul Wall. We got a cat from Portland, Oregon DJ Chill. We just gonna do it big! When I do something with Yuk I want it to be huge, like if I do a song with Pharrell. I feel like I owe him.

West Coast Rydaz: I had heard some inside news that you and Quinn might be working on more stuff, maybe even a compilation. Is that still a possibility?

Tech N9ne: They said something to me about and I said I'm down like four flat tires without a spare holmes! I told em, whatever yall need homie, let's do a compilation. Just send it here and I'm there. I know he had just put out a new album and stuff like that, I ain't waiting impatiently but I'm waiting.

West Coast Rydaz: Talk about the whole KC and Bay thing that the media blew up. Being from Kansas City what do you have to say about that issue?

Tech N9ne: It's horrible! You cannot come to Kansas City and not hear Mac Dre playing in the club. I don't know if people know this but Kansas City is the bay. If you ever been here, you would understand. Everybody gets hyphy. Kansas City ain't LA, it ain't New York, it ain't down south, Kansas City is the bay man! Everybody, Thizz Ent, I'm in the club and everybody's putting up the T's. That's why Luni Coleone can come here and stay. That's why C-Bo was down here all the time. That's why Killa Tay was down here, that's why E-40 used to come down here all the time! It's because it's so much love for the bay and Kansas City now, the fans are what fucked it up. It was a deal gone bad. Not no drug deal gone bad, from what I understand somebody wanted Dre to do a show for Halloween. One show with Sideways. He was like okay I'll pay you this to do my place tomorrow. Something went wrong after he took the money I guess, they came after him, casualties of war. It's crazy and right at the height of his [career]. And it hurt because I had to get the backlash. I met him for the first time! At Satin Dolls before this happened. He was like I been looking for you man! He taller than me so I'm looking up to him. He's like I was looking for you through Yuk, I'm trying to do something. I'm like whatever you need brother! He was a pleasant cat and everything.

On Halloween I was doing a show in Salt Lake City, Utah. Shock G showed out the back door. Shock, we kicked it years ago. I'm like let that nigga in! Shock, after my show came on stage while I was on there and started staying rhymes and everybody was going crazy on Halloween. The next morning we had to hear that shit about Dre. I'm like damn! It hurt because it made the bay area think that Kansas City was hating. Yall killed one of our greats we gonna kill one of your greats. It's like damn man. I had to go out there and talk to 40 and 40 was like man if you hear anybody trippin' you get with me. I talked to Yuk, Doobie and all them know who did it? He like yeah man they know it aint no beef or nothing like that, they know exactly who it is. The real niggas knew! That was just the fans who tried to make it into something. I even had Tech N9ne vans out there and on Cinco De Mayo San Jose they said that my dude Dave had to get out and rough some mothafuckas up because they was trying to tip over the van like "Tech N9ne killed Mac Dre!" That was the fans just saying that! They don't know that this is my family! My Regime family. Thizz Ent family. It hurt me. So I talked to Big Von out there on the radio. He's like Tech man, we gonna play Jellysickle, Kansas City King and the Ambassador of the Bay, to let people know it ain't no beef, it's just the fans trying to blow it into something. They love Mac Dre here and they love him everywhere else. I just hate that the nigga had to go right now when it was about to be a mega star! I hate taking about it cause it hurts. Ignorant ass people try to turn it into something and say Fat Tone did it, he had to die behind it. All these people is my family dude. Mac Minister is my family through the Regime. Fat Tone is my family, nigga I been knowing him since I was 14! He was the opposite side, blue and everything, but I woulda died for that died, killed for him, whatever. These are my family members, both sides! That collided. It was crazy bro. I loved both of em. Still do. And miss the hell outta Mac Dre, wish I could've did something with him bro. He was a talented dude. Anybody that can have that affect on so many people so quick.

Around that time they tried to cancel all my shows in Sac, I'm like wow! When I was in Santa Cruz they said man some Vallejo niggas talking about coming down and lighting you up. I'm like man, whatever! I did they show, my Federation niggas was there, kicking it like donkeys. Had bitches all in the hotel kickin it partying for Dre. The real niggas knew that it wasn't nobody, had nothing to do with Tech N9ne, had nothing to do with Rich The Factor, had nothing to do with Fat Tone. It's just the way it happened. I say on my first song on my album Everready. "Back on cause this is for Fat Tone, and Mac Dre, all of the soldiers who got gone on that day." Casualties of rap music and the streets, rap music is from the streets so we gonna have stuff like that happen. The fans blew it up into something it wasn't. It wasn't no Kansas City Bay Area rivalry. Never man. That was something else. If that was the case I would've been gone by now baby. Kansas City is rough but them Bay Area niggas ain't playing either. I spent time out there, I know killas out there.

We told Yuk whenever they come to Kansas City come through us. They got them niggas in KCK! You can't do that man. Them niggas ain't got nothing they waiting for niggas to come over there. They don't even like us! [laughs] We city slickers, across the water. Back in the day we used to say Kansas City, Kansas niggas don't like Missouri niggas cause we go over there and take they bitches! Whenever I'm doing shows with ICP and Kottonmouth Kings we be over there in Kansas City, KCK, we come out every window is broken. Niggas stealing shit, going crazy. My girl got her Louis Voitton purse that I bought her stolen. Plus the 800 that was in it.

But I told Yuk when yall on the road get with us. I guarantee if Mac Dre was with us, he'd still be here. Cause we do our business right, we ain't on no sideways nigga shit. I just wish we could turn back the hands of time, do the show, get paid, fuck bitches, go back home. That's the cycle.

West Coast Rydaz: So there you have it, any artists reading/listening to this, holla at Strange Music if you wanna get a performance done right in KC.

Tech N9ne: No doubt holla at Strange Music. 816 229-4700. Don't run with these sideways niggas. It's some promoters that's cool. My boy Fat Boy, down with Southside Posse, they doing it big with Money G. But anybody else, I don't know you, I don't care. Niggas like that end up killing moguls like Mac Dre and we need those niggas! His music gonna live on, you can't go nowhere and not hear it. Thizzle Dance. S-T-U-P-I-D. Everywhere! Especially in Kansas City, to this day. And they be throwing up the Ts at me! You think I didn't see the T's in Denmark! I seen em. Breaks my heart man, sincerity. I'm not talking about something thats gonna save my ass. Naw it's my family. We be hearing it spread out to all creeds. I'm talking about Bend, Oregon. Nigga I ain't know where the hell that was! All I know is Portland, Oregon. Bend, a gang of bitches! All creeds! Thizzed out. Bumpin Mac Dre. Wonderful man, I wish he was here to see it. I wish I was here so I can do something and say I did shit with Pac, Eminem, KRS One, E-40, Bone Thugs, Twista, come on man! I wanted to be able to say I did that with Mac Dre and we kicked it like donkeys. Cause I am Malcom X nigga. I almost died in 99 for taking 15 X pills. You hear T9X, "he popped, trapped in a psychos body, he popped, 15 hits of X in one night, lick big tits had sex with some dyke." That was back then! Now I'm talking about back then black folks wasn't doing X. Cats was tellin me, that's white folks! We smoke weed! We don't do that. Nigga Mac Dre infected this whole nation.

West Coast Rydaz: X was just apart of raves back then huh...

Tech N9ne: Yeah! I Was the black dude with red hair. I been raving, thug raving since 98. Totally! Poppin em! I had to calm down cause I almost died in 99. Dre got the hoods infected! Niggas is thizzin everyday! That's power. I know it ain't positive, but we kick it!

West Coast Rydaz: Like a morning coffee, pop a thizz.

Tech N9ne: Yeah! I love it. Anybody that can spread love like that man, you gotta adore em. It ain't no rivalry, that's street shit.

West Coast Rydaz: What are your feelings toward rap artists always being the scapegoat for negative things being done by the fans of the music? Often times Rock singers include content that's just as negative and violent, but they never seem to be targeted like that...

Tech N9ne: The thing is, rap music is street music. It's from the streets. When you get shit from the streets there's gonna be poverty. When there's poverty there's gonna be crime. So you gonna get niggas in the business that's coming from a life of crime. You don't see Axl Rose or Trent Reznor getting into it, battling over records. This shit is from the street. So they gonna always point the finger at us cause this is the black market. In the mainstream scale. They always talk that shit like oh it's because of this, he was listening to Tech N9ne Trapped in a Psycho's Body when he murdered...You be like, you know what, we been watching the Lone Ranger since we were little. Tonto and Lone Ranger shooting niggas. If you wanna go to cartoons, Yosemite Sam busting at niggas with gages. Like programming us. Then you got Arnold Schwartzenneger, the Terminator! We watching him killing mothafuckas. He's doing what the mothafuckas in Colombine did! Going through places just bustin on mothafuckas. That looks more like Terminator than a nigga on the street! They blame it on rap music because we from the street, and they young, it's the black market. TV is the biggest form of constant bombardment, they got us fucked up. The movies are the biggest form of constant bombardment to the brain. I been listenign to Slipknot and System of a Down for years. "If your 555 I'm 666". I don't believe I'm 666 but I love that music. I love Slipknot. That don't mean I'm gonna go hang myself. I'mma tell you, it all starts in the home. If the parents are not there to corall they god damn kids, they gonna explode and they gonna lash out. My kids ain't about to do that. I been coralling em since they were born. They listen to my music, they listen to Eminem, they listen to the cuss words, but they know not to say them cuss words cause I taught em. Corall your kids or they will explode on everybody. These mothafuckas got no control over they children, try to put it on music now it's your fault you bitch ass mothafucka!

I'm a parent, got 3 kids, 11, 12, and 7 and they wonderful. In this fucked up world they are wonderful. They know what not to do, wrong and right, no in between. Colombine, it ain't no reason they was practicing shooting in they garage and they parents didn't know it! Punk ass parents. Don't know what to do with they children, sittin back smokin weed behind they back. Faggots and shit. I ain't got nothing against the gay community but I'm talkin about these young mothafuckas is fuckin on each other and suckin on each other and then go shoot up a school! No parental guidance bro. It starts in the home. They cannot blame it on music. I took my kids to go see FInal Destination, I took them to go see Dawn of the Dead. The new one with Ving Rhames was real graphic at the beginning! All the blood...my kids were like daddy this is horrible! But they know! Right and wrong! I teach them, I don't hold them back from nothing. Just like the private school thing, they say the private school girls are nastiest because they try to shelter them! You tell the kids no, don't do this, you can't go to this dance, they gonna sneak out and do it! That's why they end up pregnant first. You gotta open, this is the key. You gotta be open with your children just like you talking to grown ups. There's a fine line, you don't wanna talk to your kid like get the fuck outta here you mothafucka! No, but you talk to them and teach them like adults. Like baby you can't use your loud voice when yourinside. We already got that bad stereotype that black people can't be quiet in closed in places. Teach them little things so they will remember when they're older. These parents always wanna point the finger at mothafuckas that's trying to get up out the ghetto. They have no back bone so they kids fuck up and they blame us. Fuck you!

I can't wait till they get me on TV. I got alot to say. And I'm speaking freely now, profanity and everything but they get me on camera, I can talk to you like an intelligent person and I won't have to say one cuss word and let you know what the hell I'm thinking. So whenever they come at me sideways, Nation of Islam always taught me to back up what you say. So if I say something about my music and 10 years later I say something different, they gonna be able to say 'Ah, you contradicting yourself.' It ain't gonna be able to be like that. I was raised a Christian, my mama married a Muslim when I was 12, so when I was 17 I ran away from home. But I learned alot. I try to put alot of that on my kids. I might be slightly crazy, a big clusterfuck because of the way I was raised, but I learned alot! My family loved me. My stepfather taught me alot even though I thought he was against me. But he was a hardcore Muslim, didn't want me fucking with white girls and shit like that. But the only thing he had twisted was that God don't want nobody to hate nobody, he created everybody equal. That's what I always knew, man seperated us. Hatred. A baby is not born with hatred, it's taught it. That's why they shoot up schools, fly into buildings with planes, blow up buildings in Oklahoma. Because they ain't had no parental guidance, it ain't no god damn music. It ain't no Marylin Manson or Eminem.

West Coast Rydaz: The Red hair, paint, robes, is that a correct representation of Aaron Yates or is Tech N9ne a whole different persona?

Tech N9ne: Let me tell you this. I tell people all the time, I ain't about no gimmicks or nothing like that. I think The red hair was due to the drugs. [laughs] I started doing ecstacy real big around that time back in the late 90s. I dig what that did for me. I just cut all my hair off two months ago, I look like a normal dude now. American Psycho all the way because you don't know that clown is within me. Let me tell you. Those images that you see is what's inside my head. That's how I best describe the beast in me. Comes as something that's supposed to be pleasant but really aint, that's the clown. The spikes were my crown because I always thought I was a king. That's what my name means - high exalted. Aaron. High priest. My auntie named me that. All these images - the king, the clown, and the G are part of me. I'm not one dimensional, I'm three dimensional. But I think the red hair came from all those raves and all those drugs and it pushed me to do something. That red being my block 57th St. Road dawgs Villain blood gang. Red being my favorite color. But if I wasn't on so many drugs, the acid, the GHB at the time doing hella X and shrooms all in one night, I think that pushed me to say I'mma do this.

As a black man, that's gonna look crazy as a mothafucka to your people! It scared my people away from me. After AngHellic my people didn't buy my albums no more. It hurt me! I had alot of beautiful music but my imagery scared them. But I never changed it at all. The only reason I cut my hair off is because I'm touring so much, a nigga don't know how to take care of bleached hair on the road! I can't afford no bitch to come with me and help me yet! My shit was falling out and it starting to look stupid. So I had to cut it all off from the beginning. If I would've known how many numbers and pussy you get with your hair like that, I would've cut it a long time ago! When you see me you gonna be like damn, he don't even look like Tech N9ne no more. Man the clown is on the inside, American Psycho style. So this is what I came up with, a serial killer has to have some kind of draw to get a bitch in his house. I can't walk up in there with them red spikes and expect a bitch to go home with me. But now that I was forced to cut it, I'm known that it's more women! They say I put the pussy on a pedestal like the 40 Year Old Virgin, I love it! I feel like the female species is the best thing that ever happened to us as males. A serial killer has to have some kind of draw. Charles Manson played the guitar, gotta have some kind of good look to you. So I tell Travis, don't be scared that my hair is gone, my fans still gonna love me. But this is a way I can get more females to come to us! Females buy them albums bro! It's Amercan Psycho style, I'm appealing to these bitches and I get them in here and then we scare the shit outta them! When you see the album it looks normal on the front now when you open it you got the king, the clown, and the G - like this is the same nigga? Hell yeah baby this is what's inside me.

I would never take back the red hair, I still paint my face. Whatever I feel that night before I go on stage - If I did shrooms and I feel spun the next night, I put SPUN on my forehead. I still paint my face cause the clown is still apart of me. THe king is high exalted, feel like ain't nothing above him. The rules don't apply to him. The clown is the extreme party animal, consequence is nothing. Whether it be the abundant use of drugs, or the sexual use of women. And the G, understands family values, like being on the road and not being able to be there for your little girls birthday or sons, it hurts em. I'm three dimensional, that's me. Aaron Yates. The King, the Clown, and the G. NO gimmicks. I'm just letting people know this sick image is what I see in my head when I think of a beast. I made a beast of myself over the years. I lost my wife because of it, but still best of friends. I get to go out to LA to see my children, ain't seen em in months. But I lost my family, what I was working for due to me becoming a beast and being gone on the road for so long. My kids love me to death, but my wife feel like I'm a stranger when I come home. But now me and my wife been seperated for like 2 years and now she wants me to meet some dude she met. It's backlash I get for becoming the beast, but I like it! At the same time, I lost what was so dear to me. But God loves me because he still gives me a glimpse of what I could have. I could go back to my house in Sherman Oaks, California and sleep in the same bed with my wife. We don't touch, we ain't touched in 5 years since I had that affair with that stripper bitch and she told on me and everything. But we been brothers and sisters ever since. We can still go to Magic Mountain and eat and laugh, and when I'm sitting there I'm like damn, I'm a beast but I gotta have some kind of angel in me to be able to have these angels and this piece of my life.

West Coast Rydaz: A few years ago you were pushing the FTI line...Fuck The Industry, you released the entire Absolute Power album for free download to prove that fans would still support you if they liked the music. What is the status of this whole movement? What are your current feelings on the industry.

Tech N9ne: I totally feel the same way. I still feel like the Industry is a bunch of fucking punks. The reason why, it's the same I woulda told you back then. Because I feel like these record execs don't wanna take a chance with this shit. You got some that do. But you got Russell Simmons that will take a chance, you got Clive Davis that will take a chance, you think he woulda ever thought that if he took a chance he could make all this money off Kenny G, a whiteboy with curly hair blowing a god damn horn? Nah, he took a chance! Music is supposed to inspire, Lauryn Hill said that. What that means is when we do this and our thing, it's supposed to inspire the next mothafucka to do something greater. Kanye West said when he heard "Xxplosive" (Dr. Dre) it made him do that beat for Jay-Z, Scarface and all that inspired him to do a beat similar to it and get in that circle. Next thing you know he done elevated to another level. That's what music is about. If Young Jeezy come out, don't make 10 more fucking Young Jeezys! You almost gotta feel em, the record companies cause they wanna do what's hot right now to get they money. It's all about the money. But don't be a fucking punk and not wanna take a chance with new artists. It's niggas out here that really have new shit and the world has to hear it! If I gotta do it being the Vice President of Strange Music I'm gonna do that shit dogg. Cause I'm gonna always elevate. If I hear something Jay-Z, or Eminem, or Busta do it's gonna provoke me to do something harder! The industry is punks cause they wanna make a million Young Jeezys, it's supposed to be Young Jeezy, boom! Let him have his thing. Young Joc, let him have his thing. But you ain't supposed to duplicate these mothafuckas cause that's what everybody's listening to. Take it to another level. I love Outkast god damnit, cause they don't give a fuck. It's about expressing yourself. Look at Cee-Lo man! You gotta be proud of that brother. You gotta be proud of Gnarls Barkley, he finally getting what he fuckin deserve! I loved Goodie Mob, but this is what that nigga is supposed to be doing. I love to see that. A nigga that was just expressing himself, fuck you nigga I'm St. Elsewhere! Would it be so hard for you to come visit me here? I'm somewhere out there! Wonderful. We listen to music and it's supposed to make us wanna do something greater. That's what the industry don't do. FTI for life dogg. We gonna become the industry and if we get our fuckin hands on the wheel that controls everything, you gonna see innovative shit.

West Coast Rydaz: What is next after this "Everready" album? You gonna keep going active....putting out any of your artists?

Tech N9ne: We gonna do Everready, November 7th. That's gonna be my biggest album ever. We got Alpha Dog the movie coming out January. That's a Nick Cassavetes movie. He's a director that did John Q, he did Face Off. He's a big time director. This is a true story about this dude Jesse James Hollywood who got this other dude killed. [Nick] called me cause he bought Absolute Power just on a fluke and listened to it and loved it and had me do the music for the god damn movie. I'm underground and I get to do a movie that got Sharon Stone, Bruce Willis, Justin Timberlake, Emil Hearst, Courtney Cox, everybody is in this god damn movie! And he chose Tech N9ne to do the god damn music! It's gonna be so big for me dogg. I got all kind of Tech music in there.

So on my roster after Everready you gonna get Critical Bill, it's the first rock band we signed to Strange Music from Detroit, Michigan. Shortly after that it's Scatterman and Snugg Brim, my gangsta mothafuckin niggas. They putting out they album called Word On The Street. Shortly after that it's gonna be Kutt Calhoun, a second album called Feature Presentation. Then its gonna be PDM. Project Dead Man. Signed them a couple years ago outta Saginau, Michigan. This is for the Juggalos, the darker side of music. Alot of ICP fans are fans of them, so they're coming out. Shortly after that big Krizz Calico finally get to do his first album, "The Funkra". Then shortly after that me and Krizz are gonna do a venture into rock shit called Kabosh. When you put the kabosh on something it's when you put a halt to it. If a bitch is talking shit it's like I put the kabosh on that bitch last night. Everything stops after Kabosh. It's so much stuff we about to do man. After that I'm gonna do another album called Izms, I don't really see nothing more until it hit me. I write as my life progresses and right now I'm just going. I'm gonna ride the Everready wave. Like the battery, meaning it's stronger than ever. Keep going even though I keep getting knocked down. 9 Lives baby! If you look at the Everready symbol, it's a 9 with a cat jumping through the loop of the 9 with a lightning bolt tail. I was like hell naw this is a message from God! I'm calling my album Everready but I did it wit 2 r's instead of one. I subtitled it The Religion. Meanin something to be worshiped or praised. This shit will be worshiped and praised!

West Coast Rydaz: So no more for year hiatuses?

Tech N9ne: Hell naw cause the bigger we get, the better our touring is gonna be. It's like doing 56 city tours and then right after that doing another 40 city tour. It's like the bigger we get - we gonna do 22 dates in these big ass arenas. Then we gonna do an album, then we gonna do a tour again. We stay on so much cause we gotta feed our family bro, and this is the way we do it. So I stay out there for the love of my family. I send all that money to my wife in LA, or my baby mama here in Kansas City. So it's like I gotta stay on the road to take care of them. The fans make it possible for me to buy them the best clothing. The fans make it possible for me to have them in the best schools. And I say this in every interview because I want the world to know, you got these punk ass rappers that the fans run up to, the don't know when they gonna see you again. That's why whenever Eminem said "at least have the decency, when you see me eating with my daughter not come and speak to me." I understand what he's talking about, I love Em. But alot of these rappers, and these fans don't know the next time they gonna see you! So they gonna take advantage, whether you in the bathroom, this is a fluke! Tech N9ne is passing through Denver, Colorado airport, you think they ain't gonna stop me? They don't know when they gonna see me again. Alot of these rappers turn people away like nah I don't sign autographs. They the reason why you can live in this god damn house. These people are the reason why your kids are spoiled like a mothafucka! They are the reason I can take my children to Magic Mountain or Knottsberry farm. My fans are the ones who put that in my pocket so I got to show them love! Alot of these rappers need to wake the fuck up and get off they high horse and know that you ain't shit without these fans!

That's truly how I feel at 34 years old. I'm about to be 35 November 8th man. I feel like I'm 18, I fuck these bitches like I'm 18. But my heart man, I recognize what's real and what's right. Some of these mothafuckas live on the street and still got your album. Nigga you better fuckin sign they shit and not charge them 5 dollars. I should start tellin the fans, you should start smackin these niggas with guns when they say no. I bet you they will sign it then.

I only got one more thing to say. I want to tell anybody that's listening to me right now. I want this to be quoted correctly. It's two words I always say to people. Celebrate Life. No matter how fucked up you think, or you can't pay your bills, you gotta find some way to celebrate life. If you just feel how you feel on the inside, it's alot of shit I ain't accomplished yet that I wanna do for my children. If I died right now Fernando, I would say I'm happy with the person I am on the inside. I might not be happy with the rest of my life or the way shit's going, but I'm happy with the way I am. I could die and say I got a good heart. Celebrate Life because people are trying to blow this mothafucka up! Over money. Celebrate Life as much as you can because you don't wanna have to die and say damn, I didn't feel right, I didn't do what I wanted to. Celebrate Life, those two words mean everything. Tell all these mothafuckas to celebrate life, from Tech N9ne to the rest of the world.

[HateMeNow]

FAT JOE INTERVIEW

Fat Joe is one the glossiest veterans in rap. Tracks like 2005's “Lean Back” or his new single “Make It Rain” are tailor-made for radio, but don't get it twisted; Joe knows where he's from. The early 90s saw Joe as a member of New York's legendary Diggin' In The Crates crew, which consisted of fellow legends like Buckwild, Diamond D, and the late Big L, and was also best friends with the late Big Pun, whom many consider as one of the best lyricists of all time.

This year, Joey Crack seems to be taking it back to his roots. His upcoming album, Me, Myself & I is an independent release, and he vows that the aforementioned LP is filled with more street bangers instead of pop tarts (writer's note: from the six songs I've heard from the album, he's stuck to his word). In an interview with HipHopDX, Fat Joe talks about shifting toward a mainstream-friendly direction, calls for a Diggin' In The Crates reunion, and battles accusations about not taking care of the late Big Pun's family.

HipHopDX: The past few years—specifically since “Lean Back”—have really seen you come out into the limelight as a superstar, with instant recognition. How has life been different for you since then?

Fat Joe: It's great. I get to go different direction with everything I do now, and get more of a priority when I come out and put something together. That's why I put out this album independently: I was popular enough, and enough of a celebrity, and enough niggas feel me, so that I could do something like this and be successful at it.

HipHopDX: Talk about the album a bit.

Fat Joe: The album is called Me, Myself & I, in stores November 14. The single “Make It Rain” is with Lil Wayne, we just shot the video. Puff, Rick Ross, Scott Storch, Dre, Weezy Baby, everybody's up in there. The album is called Me, Myself & I because it's a personal album for me. I locked myself in the room, called my favorite producers and told them to send me tracks, and just wrote away. None of my crew heard the album, I didn't really take no creative input on the album. I did it exactly how I wanted to do it, it's real personal.

(For example) I've got a song called “Maria,” dedicated to my mother that's real personal. Talking about our struggles as a family, how strong she was to help us survive in the severe. It's a deep song, and when you hear it, you feel like you're there. I know I feel like I'm there.

HipHopDX: It's an independent album, but you're also with Virgin. How does that work?

Fat Joe: They're actually distributing the album. I just felt like partnering up with a place that has the capabilities, that if we put out a record and it's going to a certain place where maybe an independent can't chase it like that, we have can have the big boys kick in and help us out. That was important to me.

HipHopDX: It seems like your last album, critics loved it, but it seemed slept on pretty badly.

Fat Joe: Fat Joe's albums are always slept on. I'm the most slept on MC. And then what happens is, it's sad, because a fucking year later, people who sleep on the album put in the album and figure out the shit was hot. Fuckers start coming up to me a year later, like, “You know what? I just copped the album, and that shit is crazy!” I'm like, “Yeah, all right. Why didn't you cop it the first week?” That happens to me a lot. I just feel like 20 years from now, nobody's biased, nobody's got their favorites, and people just start studying music and bodies of work, they're going to realize that Fat Joe is really, really bringing it.

HipHopDX: On the new album, you have two songs with Lil Wayne. How did you guys initially hook up?

Fat Joe: Lil Wayne is my favorite rapper out right now. DJ Khaled in Miami, he put us together. And the rest is history and magic. It's an honor to work with a young brother at the top of his game, and he lights a fire on me, makes me step up my game.

HipHopDX: You've also got The Game on there.

Fat Joe: It's crazy. (The song with Game) is the second single, we should go to Jamaica to shoot that (video). Game's a good brother. His first album was a classic. We share the same goals, same views on the state of hip-hop, paying respects, unifying hip-hop. ... I feel him, I feel his vibe.

HipHopDX: You switch up your flow a whole lot these days. Is that a conscious effort, or is that just to fit the production you work with at the time?

Fat Joe: That's that new shit. Back in the day, if you picked up the first or second Fat Joe album, it was just one flow, it was a lot of screaming. This is what I've worked on. I've crafted the art to where I could hit different flows, hit different concepts, different shit on my albums. So where you could be like, “Damn, he's really stepping his game up.” That's where I'm at with it. Just trying to learn to take it to different places.

HipHopDX: Do you have any plans to work with people you used to work with? Buckwild, Showbiz, Lord Finesse, etc.?

Fat Joe: I would love to, I'm trying to get a Diggin In The Crates reunion album going. But we aren't little kids in the same project no more, just loving hip-hop. They go and do their own thing. I'm dying to, because truthfully, when I was coming up, everybody was better than me. Now, I'm definitely on their level, so I'm trying to show my ass on this album. This is my come-up album. You can call me Phife from Tribe Called Quest! I'm coming up!

HipHopDX: When you look at your hip-hop roots, you've taken a real different direction. As your status rose, you also began to make records with Nelly, Paris Hilton, and Jennifer Lopez. What prompted that change of direction?

Fat Joe: I grew. I got in this game to be a superstar, ya know?. I love underground hardcore hip-hop, and the majority of the new album is like that. But I also like songs that you see me perform on the MTV Awards, BET Awards. I try to make huge records, and sometimes when you do that, you have to take criticism. You live with those regrets, because people somehow want you to stay stuck in a time machine. They just want you to do the same shit; but when you start to do the same shit, they say that you're played out. You've just got to work and expand your craft.

HipHopDX: There have been accusations out there that you haven't taken care of Pun's family since he died, and people note his family selling Pun's things on eBay for money.

Fat Joe: We don't see eye-to-eye on a lot of things, but I try to hold Pun's legacy with dignity and pride. I definitely taken care of them, and find ways for them to make money. At the end of the day—not opening up a big can of worms—but I've made sure they've made way more money than you'll ever make in your life, you know what I'm saying? If they spend it unwisely, they keep coming back, (but) I've got family and kids, too. These people have been rich, so if they spend their money unwisely when they get it,. And we go all out to get them money, and they keep coming back every year making an accusation that we don't take care of them, and then we go all out to get them more money, and then it every single time it keeps happening, it starts feeling like extortion. It is what it is. I definitely got his family more money than any normal human beings would be getting in their lifetime, so for them not to have money, it's spending money unwisely. That's the only way I can say that without disrespecting.

merita citit... sursa: hiphopdx.com

[DFB]

The Game Interview
Author: Adam Bernard

He's baaack! The association with G-Unit is gone but if you ask The Game it never really made sense anyways, he's always been one to stand on his own two feet. This week The Game sat down with us at RapReviews to talk about Doctor's Advocate, the G-Unit situation, who set it up and why he knew it would fail, as well as one famous wrestler's beef with him, and why he plans on retiring Tiki Barber style, sooner rather than later.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Adam Bernard: You have been through A LOT in-between albums. If you can encapsulate it all, what have you learned between albums one and two?
The Game: I learned that Hip-Hop is a business and it should be treated and respected as so and none of these motherfuckers is your friend so that's why I don't have any.

AB: So you're through with industry friends?
Game: Yeah man, unless it's like some direct rapper like the ones on the "One Blood" remix. Those are all guys that I made physical contact with, pounded it up, dapped it up with, smoked a blunt, or had some liquor with or just chopped it up with about some good times and Hip-Hop in general, but outside of that, the record execs, the people and all them shit? Fuck that shit. I'm Game and I'ma roll and I'ma live my life and do what the fuck I want. I'm a manage my own career cause I got this shit on lock. I can't go wrong, I can't be fucked with and that's what it is.

AB: Looking back on it now, is there anything you would have changed?
Game: Hell no. Every fucked up experience breeds a happy ending for me.

"Yeah I knew 50 was a fuckin jealous piece of shit from the start but I was forced into that situation..."


AB: Did you ever anticipate the relationship with G-Unit turning sour?
Was there anything about them that you were wary of from the start?
Game: Yeah I knew 50 was a fuckin jealous piece of shit from the start but I was forced into that situation, but I knew in time I would gain some things from it and so would G-Unit and I had a wonderful time while I participated in the group but at this point I'm Ice Cube when he left NWA, man. I gotta make it happen for me now.

AB: When you say you were forced was a situation where they said they were going to put you with them to make sure you blow up?
Game: It was "we're gonna put you with these guys and there's a possibility that you might blow up before you're supposed to blow up." That was by Jimmy Iovine and it was a fuckin ingenious idea, man. Jimmy Iovine's the fuckin brain of the whole operation. But now it's me doing my own thing. I'm The Game, I was a solo artist then and that's why I didn't really fit. It's kinda like trying to put a puzzle together you don't have that last piece, what are you gonna do shove a piece of gum in there and mold it around the puzzle? That shit's not gonna look right. So you're gonna have to take that gum out and stick that gum on the wall and that's me at this point.

AB: After everything that's happened to you and around you these past few years what do you feel people's biggest misconceptions are about you?
Game: I don't even think that deep about them. I don't give a fuck what people misconceive. Let em! I love it! As long as they're misconceiving it about me and not another rapper I'm good.

AB: So as long as people are talking about you you're pretty happy.
Game: Yeah, as long as people are talking about anybody they should be happy.

"I think that we should just take it to Pay Per View and have a wrestling match, man, so I can fuck him up..."


AB: I read something the other day that I'm not sure if I really believe. Is WWE superstar Triple H really suing you over your name?
Game: Yeah, Triple H is tryin to sue me for "The Game." I think that we should just take it to Pay Per View and have a wrestling match, man, so I can fuck him up because I'm not into that whole play wrestling thing. We can really take it to the streets, we can wrestle right in the middle of Compton. We can put up a makeshift ring made out of shoestrings and light posts. I'll get in there and body slam his ass all over the place for the name.

AB: Were you ever a wrestling fan? Does this hurt you at all?
Game: I was a fan of Ultimate Warrior and Hulk Hogan, but these new wrestlers, the guy with the rappin thing with the spinnin belt and shit? I don't know about all these guys. There's too much fake shit. It was fake back in the day but at least they made it real. Hulk Hogan and Ultimate Warrior, Macho Man and all them motherfuckers, Sting and Lex Luger, Ric Flair, but these new motherfuckers, these Triple H's and these… I don't even know nobody else's name in the new shit.

AB: Well it's definitely going to be an interesting situation. How long do you think it's gonna play out?
Game: It ain't gonna do nothing but make me bigger because now I'm gonna have wrestling fans. If I was Vince McMahon I would tell him to shut the fuck up and sit down before they sell me some more albums.

AB: So could you see yourself battling John Cena, the aforementioned wrestler who rhymes?
Game: I'd kick his ass.

AB: You know he's beefin with Kevin Federline on RAW.
Game: I might come on one day and just fuck him up for Kevin, like don't be fuckin with us man.

"Kevin Federline is good in the hood to me, man."


AB: Oh no, you can't side with Kevin Federline.
Game: Kevin Federline is good in the hood to me, man. I smoked with a blunt with him before. Good folks.

AB: So you would be on his side with his whole divorce battle with Britney.
Game: Oh naw, I'll take Britney's side, she's got a bigger ass.

"This album has no Dre affiliation, no 50 affiliation. I incorporated Snoop and Nas on this album. I brought back Nate Dogg..."


AB: She's got a nicer rack, too. So talk to me about your new album, how does Doctor's Advocate differ from The Documentary?
Game: This album has no Dre affiliation, no 50 affiliation. I incorporated Snoop and Nas on this album. I brought back Nate Dogg and Marsha from Floetry. Most importantly I'm on the fuckin album. I'm a classic MC, I kick classic shit and here's my album number two, it's classic.

AB: OK, so obviously no G-Unit, but you also said no Dre. When you first came out people almost co-signed on you because of those things. How do you think people are going to react now?
Game: People are already reacting. The streets don't care. You don't hear people saying that this album sucks. People know what this is, the most anticipated album in the world and I'm gonna sell my units with or without Dre, with or without 50, with or without anybody.

"Me and Dre are one hundred and we'll always be one hundred..."


AB: You're cool with Dre, though, right?
Game: Me and Dre are one hundred and we'll always be one hundred for the rest of my life.

AB: So what are your goals for this album versus your last one?
Game: As long as I meet or top it I'm good.

AB: Is there anyone new you're looking to reach?
Game: I don't really dig that far into it like that, I just make classic music, put the shit on the shelf and let the album do what it do.

AB: I know you also have Black Wall Street. Tell what's next for that venture.
Game: I got a kid by the name of Juice, he's from the west coast and he's the next up out here. Remember the name, Juice.

AB: Is that the same Juice that was winning all the freestyle battles ten years ago?
Game: No no no, ten years ago he was probably ten.

"We donated a portion of each sale from the shoe to Hurricane Katrina relief funds and we're still doing that to this day..."


AB: I feel like I'm jumping from topic to topic here, but I know our time is limited today so I have to rush a bit. Your shoes, did you worry at all about having your kicks names Hurricane right after Katrina destroyed a large section of the country?
Game: That was a just a freak accident, it was so coincidental. We donated a portion of each sale from the shoe to Hurricane Katrina relief funds and we're still doing that to this day although many have forgotten about Hurricane Katrina. It was an issue for about one day until we figured out a plan and we made it work.

AB: After The Documentary dropped you gained worldwide fame, make a prediction for what's going to happen after Doctor's Advocate drops.
Game: I'm going to Disneyland!

AB: Will you have a ride named after you, though?
Game: Probably so. So make sure you go to Disneyland and check out that Doctor's Advocate ride.

AB: You know you sound like you're in really good spirits. It sounds like everything that happened with you did not get you down at all.
Game: Not for one fuckin second man.

AB: Do you have a secret to life?
Game: Yeah man, a three and a half year old little boy. You gotta get you one, man, they're the coolest little toys in the world.

"I don't need a woman, I don't need nothing, all I need is my son."


AB: So that's what keeps you going and keeps you happy?
Game: That's it, that's all I need. I don't need a woman, I don't need nothing, man, all I need is my son.

AB: So in the end how long do you see yourself rapping to support your son?
Game: My whole family's gonna be set for life and I'm not stopping rappin until that happens. I already know I got a five year plan. I'm 26 now and I'm gonna bow out on my 31st birthday. Peace, later, holla, I'm gone.

AB: So what do you think of some of the rappers who stick around into their forties?
Game: Uuuugh. Just that. "One Blood" ad-libs.

AB: I know you said you'll bow out once your family is set, but is it also a matter of making sure that Hip-Hop still has fresh MC's out there?
Game: Of course. That's why I'm doing my job now.

AB: What else do you feel needs to be done to help young MC's get to the forefront?
Game: We just gotta keep on grindin. With the new technology and all this MySpace promotion and all this shit Hip-Hop is gonna take its course.