Mic Geronimo is one of those MC’s that took hip-hop through the nineties. He picked up on the gritty styles of the mid-years, and dragged hip-hop through the flashy age, and now on to the independent frontier. Not many people realize that in 1995, Ja Rule, DMX, Cormega, and Irv Gotti were all riding on the tracks of Mic G. Nearly ten years later, where are they, where is he? With a friendly and most content nature, Mic Geronimo puts perspective to his path and his direction. Geronimo understands the ways of the world like a veteran soldier from the streets of Queens. Still, unlike his contemporaries, Mic Geronimo perhaps cares more deeply about where this culture’s coming from, and who it really concerns. All is unleashed, in the words of a veteran rapper still hungry enough to force you to learn his name. AllHipHop: My favorite track you ever blessed was "Man Versus Many" with OC. That cut really earned you respect as an MC. Could you reflect on the inception of that cut for the longtime Mic G fans? Mic Geronimo: That’s what’s up! We just didn’t want to do a song that sounded like everybody else’s. Mr. Walt did the track, and we came in let’s just have fun. ‘Cuz me and O, we real cool, and when we’re not in the studio, we just be spittin’. He was like let’s have fun, like when we just be buggin’ out. Instead of trying to make a song for the sake of the song. It was just one of them things: the right song, the right beat, the right lyrics, at the right time. AllHipHop: What’s your writing process like? MG: It’s different, I’d say. Because I can go to the studio, hear the track, and just write it right there. Or, I could take it home and vibe with it. It all depends on how I feel. I gotten a lot better in terms of just being able to hear something and put something to it right while it’s in front of me. I don’t believe in rushing a song either. AllHipHop: A lot of people believe your name should be bigger than it is. A lot of your competition came up with one team or one producer, and you didn’t. Has that helped you or hurt you? MG: I guess you could look at it where it’s done a little bit of both. In the beginning, I wasn’t so much inclined to being locked into one sound because I never believed if you were, that it would allow you to go where you wanted to go with it. I just like to feel real free in terms of how I write. I don’t like to feel restricted about things. So, in my beginnings, it was just like I didn’t want everything to sound the same. You throw the dice with that like you do with anything else. If you choose to be versatile in picking producers, then you choose to not rock in one sound that people might familiarize you with. So it has it’s pros and its cons. AllHipHop: And now, where do you stand with that? MG: Well now, being that I have my own label, and my own in-house production, it’s like, there’s probably a way could have a sound pegged to us, in terms of your ear being familiar like, "Oh, well that must be a rebellious track." But even with that, every producer we have brings something different to the table. AllHipHop: You mention that rebellious sound. In most of your raps, you always seem to be speaking to an opposing force, be it a person or greater. How do you conjure up that energy to do that? MG: I just generalize it. I just look at it in terms of not a enemy, but the enemy. The enemy doesn’t have to be anybody in particular, the enemy can be things wrong in the game or situations I’m up against. It’s just struggling and hustling. AllHipHop: You started rhyming at fifteen which is pretty late comparing to most. How’d you learn so quickly to be signed within six years? And why so late considering you were brought up in Flushing, Queens? MG: I mean it something I was always into, but I didn’t really start taking it serious in terms of writing a rhyme and even trying to pursue it til’ about that time. I always was deejaying, and I was always into every other aspect, I think, of what makes hip-hop, hip-hop. AllHipHop: We gotta talk about "Long Road Back." Going independent, after a five year break, how does it feel? MG: It feels good because there’s a side to it where I gotta work and I gotta hustle. But you gotta start somewhere. Even when it’s hard at times, I still take solace in the fact that I own my own company now, along with my partners. That’s like a major accomplishment. That even makes you go harder. It makes you wanna make everything work as it should. It makes me just appreciate that fact. AllHipHop: Putting this record alongside "The Natural" and "Vendetta", how do you justify it or promote it? MG: To me, out of all three, it’s my most personal album. That off top, is like something from the first two. And as I said before, putting it out on my own label, which is another thing for me. Just looking at it, I just appreciate the fact that I’m here to do what I love doing and being able to provide it to people. So I look at it as a stepping stone. While the albums out now, it’s still able to go where it has to go. AllHipHop: You sound like a working man though. Is "Long Road Back" a prelude to another album, or what? MG: Oh definitely because the way I think ahead in terms of "The Long Road Back." That’s out […]
