Rick James Pt. 4: Politically Minded

AllHipHop.com: Are

you Muslim?

Rick: I study Islam

and prefer to call God, Allah. I have studied Islam for 7 years. I am a spiritualist,

I believe in God but I prefer to call him Allah

AllHipHop.com:

What attracted you to Islam?

Rick: Because Islam

is one of the most powerful dedicated regimented religions that I have ever

studied. And it opened up a whole new light for me.

AllHipHop.com:

Did you study this on your own, or did you have someone….

Rick: Allah, or

God, leads you towards what you are supposed to do, when I was thinking about

my stroke, and my mother and stuff, the only person I could turn to was God.

Christianity, I didn’t believe in. Islam is not interested in what you

wear, and it doesn’t care for all of that.

AllHipHop.com:

I had expressed converting to Islam, with a girlfriend of mines…

Rick: When you

convert to Islam you have to be ready, you have to pray five times a day. You

have to know what you are getting into.

AllHipHop.com:

She was immediately turned off, now with mainstream and in accordance with situation

in Iraq…

Rick: There has always been in every religion, warriors and soldiers, you have

fanatics. Bin Laden, we are the Bin Laden terrorists of the world, we have killed

more people than Bin Laden and Saddam put together with Adolf Hitler. We dropped

bombs and killed millions of people in Japan.

AllHipHop.com: Do you consider the current war, a holy war?

Rick: No, it isn’t

a holy war, it is a war based on money. The only reason we went over there was

to kill Saddam to get the oil. It’s a shame, ‘cause Bush’s

racist brother was stopping blacks from going to the polls.

AllHipHop.com:

Have you seen Fahrenheit 9/11?

Rick: I loved it.

What do you think? I mean, Republicans believe it’s not true, but it is

fact based. The media seems to not be as critical of the President. The President

does not have the ultimate power; the largest power seat in the US is Chairman

of the House. Because you can’t f**k with him. That’s what Arnold

Schwartzenegger is going to run for. Louis Stokes is my first cousin and he

has been a congressman for over 50 years. Me and him talk a lot, and he told

me that’s the most important position. People don’t know that big

brother’s are going to be watching them.

AllHipHop.com:

I watched 1984 just the other day. I read the book when I was 15. I read the

book and then saw the movie and thought this is so much of what is starting

to happen today.

Rick: Yes, I read

it too. I never graduated from high school but I was damned if I was going to

be dumb. That’s why in my songs, I used innuendos and stuff I gave them

a glimpse of wordology, and I never lied to them.

AllHipHop.com:

Are you going to have these messages on your double album?

Rick: They already

have been. I had a song about nuclear warfare. I’m trying to talk to our

people.

AllHipHop.com:

A lotta people like Bill Cosby, Spike Lee…

Rick: Bill Cosby

has no f**kin’ idea. Spike Lee is so self-f**king-indulgent. Danny Glover

is the only person that makes any sense. And Colin Powell is a cracker cookie

black killing piece of s**t. Bush is a f**kin’ maniac.

AllHipHop.com:

Wow. Have you heard of the possibility of a draft?

Rick: Ain’t

gonna be no f**kin’ draft. Soon as they do a draft, its gonna be a Third

World War right here in the United States, because Black people ain’t

going.

AllHipHop.com:

You ain’t lying.

Rick: How is there

gonna be a draft when there ain’t even a World War. The next world war

is a button, man. And, Korea is gonna start that s**t up. Korea already told

us, “Kiss our ass!” [Like a U.S. official] “We’d like

to take all of your weapons of mass destruction and destroy them.” Korea

said, “I’ll tell you what you do, bring ya a#### over here! And

ya’ll destroy them, motherf**kers!”

AllHipHop.com:

[Laughs]

Rick: And Revelations

in the Bible says, the Dragon will rise so shall be the end of the times. The

Red Dragon is Korea. Korea told us, “Kiss our ass! Now come on over here!”

AllHipHop.com:

I don’t think we’ll mess with Korea.

Rick: We said,

“Ok, excuse me.” Give me a f**kin’ break. Korea ain’t

having it. I love Korea, man. Korea is a Muslim country. There are many Muslims…It’s

very deep. Just think how I feel. Most people walking around the street just

don’t give a f**k that any minute if they don’t have money, they

will have a number stamped on their ass. They don’t give a f**k that money

is going to be obsolete.

AllHipHop.com:

You are right. I can’t seem to live without my ATM.

Rick: Computers,

man. You won’t even need to type.

AllHipHop.com:

I’m on the computer too much.

Rick: All those

computer are gonna be taken away and its going to be vocal. Anything you want

the computer to do, you will talk to it. Its also going to watch you’re

a**.

AllHipHop.com:

In a way, they watch you now, because they can monitor your email, where you

surf…

Rick: No, the government

is going to run computers and TV’s. Eventually, there are things that

you can say in the telephone and you’ll have helicopters over your f**kin’

house in five.

AllHipHop.com:

My whole thing is how do you prevent these things from happening?

Rick: My whole

thing is being conscious and not just running around here thinking everything

is all right because it ain’t. And my whole thing is trying to teach other

Blacks, whoever wants to listen, that there is a better way. We can run this

s**t if we unify. All Spike Lee wants to do is talk about a bunch of bulls**t

and how mad he is about white folks. Bill Cosby don’t want to be Black.

AllHipHop.com:

I think Bill had some valid points, but I think he said them under the wrong

conditions.

Rick: I been knowing

Bill for a long time. Man, Bill Cosby’s on a trip. We need to have a coalition…Bob

Johnson even sold BET. One day when we get together we can really sit down.

AllHipHop.com:

Oh, yeah. That would be great.

Rick: I get really

riled up now.