In Webster’s Dictionary, a “kamikaze” is described as “an extremely reckless person who seems to court death.” If you listen to Twista spit his trademark voracious lyrics in his usual reckless, yet precise manner, you would know his career is nowhere near death. In fact, with the release of his long-awaited album, Kamikaze, scheduled to hit stores in late January, his path seems to be as bright as it ever was. Having already received offers from arguably Hip-Hop’s most lucrative label, being on the verge of taking the car world by storm with new custom rims, and boasting the hottest single to begin 2004, Twista is on a pace as fast as his mouth. Was the long wait for his album worth it? Read on and you be the judge. Allhiphop.com: Let’s get into this new album a little bit, dog. It has been about a year or so that the album has been held up, right? Twista: Man, a little longer than that, more like a few. It’s all good though. It’s coming in January this time. It’s called “Kamikaze.” I got more stuff produced by Kanye West on there. I got R. Kelly featuring and producing a cut. I got a posse cut with (Memphis) Bleek, Freeway, and Chris on there. I got a laid back pimp cut on there with 8-Ball and Too Short. And, I got a blaze it up, crunk cut with Ludacris. Allhiphop.com: When is the exact release date of the album this month? Twista: January 27th. Allhiphop.com: Why do you think the record label kept your album on the shelves for so long? Twista: I feel like we was in a position where there was enough money spent on my project, and my whole situation was we couldn’t risk putting out another album and not have it do good. So, I had to come out right other than come out quick. It was more so about me finding that right single to really drop the album with. I came with “Slow Jamz” and it was the right time. Allhiphop.com: So, the label situation is on point as it should be? Twista: Everything is smooth, everything is on point, ready to roll, and everything’s on a positive note. Let’s do it. Allhiphop.com: Describe the experience you had working with multi-talented individuals such Kanye West and Jamie Foxx on one single. Twista: It was chemistry and a blessing. Working with Kanye is always fun. We’ve been working together for years, being from Chicago. With Jamie being a comedian, but him singing and trying to get his thing out, that was lovely, too. People had a chance to hear him and not know it was him. So, they liked it already before they realized it was him. It gave him a chance to show his true talent. Allhiphop.com: I think Jamie is the most underrated singer in the world. His musical talents are phenomenal, but he does not get the credit he deserves. Twista: That man can get down! Allhiphop.com: We have been reading speculative news about you possibly joining the ROC camp. Is that situation going anywhere, or was it alot of media hype? Twista: That’s my family that I roll with in the industry. We were trying to make something happen on the business side, but we couldn’t get it crackin’ quick enough to put the album out. We couldn’t get it crackin’ before the release of this album. I’m signed to Atlantic right now, but we are going to get something crackin’ on a positive note. Allhiphop.com: Are you talking about signing a new deal with them or something collaborative? Twista: Some type of collaboration, however it may be business-wise. As long as it’s some type of collaboration to help me get closer. I’m straight on the label jumping thing. I’m home, and I got to make something happen on a positive note. Allhiphop.com: How many years have been in this game? I can remember when I was little shorty coming up, and you had this joint called “Peace Sign.” Twista: Man, we’re talking 12 or 13 years. You went way back on me. (laughs) Allhiphop.com: How many more years do you see yourself doing this for? Twista: Well, I ain’t trying to be an old man on the forty side, doing it the way the young guys are doing it. I definitely feel like if you want to respect this as a music, you got to realize that it don’t go nowhere like none of the other music. You got rock bands and country bands that go out and tour for 20 or 30 years off of the same songs that they did when they were younger. I still want to be able to get out there, do my thing, and let people see what Twista did or used to do. But, I don’t want to be out there old trying to do it like a shorty. I still want to do it on the level of letting people appreciate the music that I did. Allhiphop.com: Artists are well known for being in the game a few years, putting out a couple of records, having a hit or two, and after that it is a wrap. What do you attribute to being in this game for this long? Twista: One of the main things is loving it enough to keep wanting to do it. To keep trying it, no matter what the downfalls. I love it too much to just stop, you know? I never believed that if you blow a shot, that’s it. I feel like true talent is always going to overshadow everything. If you got true talent, but your record is bunk and it flopped or whatever, take your ass in the studio! If you go in there and make a jam, who’s going to deny you? Allhiphop.com: What responsibility do you take in putting Chicago on the Hip-Hop map finally? Do you see yourself solely or partially responsible? […]

Few people fully understand how 9th Wonder changed the game for producers. In 2003, he created one of the most fan-friendly trends, remixing entire albums. He took Nas’ God’s Son and revamped it into God’s Stepson. Since, a slew of others have followed suit, with largely favorable results. His work with his crew Little Brother was a throwback to the great producers like Pete Rock or Marley Marl, those beatmaestros that held down entire albums. AllHiphop.com talked with the 28-year-old prodigy that went from Little Brother to Big Jigga in one summer. AllHipHop.com: What made you start doing these remixes, especially the Jay-Z project? 9th Wonder: They were releasing the Black Album acapella anyway, and I know nobody was going to expect me to do it since I did God’s Stepson. But cats don’t understand is one of the main reasons I did God’s Step Son was not only because it was acapella, but because I really wanted a chance. When you remixing somebody’s joint it feels like your working with that person. Everybody is going to want to know what I did to it. I got my dream. AllHipHop: To actually be on the album? 9th: Yeah and also I got the chance to work with him and not just that, but on one of the most historical albums ever, The Black Album, his last album. I got my dream shot. Other than me there were three cats that did Step Son or did a Nas record. I’d rather just sit back and watch cats do whatever and jump on it. It’s like when 50 Cent came out with a mixtape just talking, remixing other peoples songs. How many you know were coming out doing that? AllHipHop: The mixtape thing is getting real old now. 9th: Exactly. I’m waiting to see who puts out what and then I’ll put out a joint, but I’m not really pressing it. AllHipHop: I heard you were the first one doing it remixes like this. 9th: Yea I did it first, then Soul Supreme did Soulmatic and then MF Doom did Nastradoomus. Then this other cat did Hova’s Son and took all of Nas’ acapella’s and put them over Jay-Z beats, which I never heard before. I guess it’s something I started, remixing old records. For a long time, cats would put acapellas over beats and keep it for themselves. Me? I put it out there. AllHipHop: So what’s Little Brother up to, anything new? 9th: Well we’re trying to get a deal with a major, we’re in the works of doing that. We’re working on a new record, trying to get guest appearances and hope everybody will be surprised as to who our guest appearances will be. AllHipHop: On the album? 9th: Yea, we’re trying to raise this backpacking group. Outside of that whole label, rap is rap. And there is dope music and there’s wack music, that’s how it goes. We are trying to find dope MC’s whether it be from the underground or Louisiana. It don’t matter, dope songs are dope songs. But that’s what we’re trying to do now and hopefully the Jay-Z thing will help us out. AllHipHop: A lot of people call you the new Pete Rock. 9th: Yea. It’s like this, you always know that cat that you grew up with or went to school with that had the nice ride? They had this they had that. But Didn’t really have to say nothing to no girls, didn’t have to develop a personality or talk game? I quote, "It’s the same way with music." So all these cats that got all this stuff, but no feeling of Hip-Hop music in their soul, their music is garbage. On the other hand the cats who ain’t blessed with all that, as far as equipment, they take what they have and flip it. That’s why Pete Rock is the master of the SP 1200, because it’s 12 seconds of sampling time but he takes that 12 seconds and flips it. You know what I’m saying? AllHipHop: Yeah. 9th: So all that big studio and all that that doesn’t impress me. I’m really concerned with what’s coming out of it. Your finished result. It’s nice to have a cool setting, but what’s the point of having all that if you can’t work it? AllHipHop: My brother still has the ASR10. It’s not really the equipment, it’s you. 9th: Kanye uses the ASR10 man. I mean make n*ggas change and do what your doing, don’t follow so much. A lot of people came down on me like, why do you use fruity loops? I ain’t have a choice. I did this beat for Jay-Z in the studio from my laptop. He listened to like 29 of my beats, but he didn’t choose any off that CD. I guess he was seeing if I was good enough for the job. So I did it in like 20 minutes and he was like man, I haven’t never seen nothing like this before. AllHipHop: So you were right there in Jay-Z’s face making a beat? 9th: Well he was in and out, but he told me what he wanted me to do, because he gave me a idea for a song, that’s why when you read the credits it says "Produced by 9th Wonder for The Planet" and at the end it says "and Jay-Z." He gave me the idea to chop the song up, but I was like give me 20 minutes and put it on Pro Tools. It’s just the fact that you got to change the game. It’s my way of changing the game, because I ain’t about to learn no machines. For what? I made it this far, why should I change.? AllHipHop: Well going to a major the stakes get even higher. How do you feel about taking it to the next level? Your going to have budgets and videos, but the bottom line is the money. 9th: Who […]

The long time friend and collaborator of Blackalicious and DJ Shadow, Lyrics Born is no stranger to hip hop. In fact, he and his friends, who would later become Quannum Records, have helped to mold and shape the unique, creative brand of underground hip hop that California is so well known for. Lyrics Born solo debut album, Later That Day, has received an insane amount of critical acclaim. From MTV to Entertainment Weekly, Lyrics Born has been getting nothing but props. The music writers and editors of Amazon.com considered his debut album Later That Day, the # 2 hip hop album of 2003, superseded only by the album to which it is often compared, Outkast’s Speakerbox/The Love Below. Born in Japan and formerly known as Asian Born, Lyrics Born isn’t interested in making his ethnicity a focus in his music, neither via his moniker or elsewhere. Lyrics’ funkdafied debut proves that he wants to make music for the people…all the people. In the mist of a hectic production schedule Lyrics took some time to speak with Allhiphop about the new album and the current growth of hip hop. Allhiphop.com: You grew up in Berkeley, was there a lot of hip hop in Berkeley? Lyrics Born: In the sense that you could hear it. Most of the guys that rapped was from Oakland or Richmond, so I was like right in between. So I just got with those guys cause those were the guys that were serious, rapping in talent shows and in basements. Allhiphop.com: Fast forward to college, where you met your crew. Lyrics Born: Yeah, that’s were I basically met what would be Quannum, which was Shadow, Xcel, Gift of Gab, Joyo Velarde, I met all those guys in college. We would just get down in Xcel and Shadow’s apartment and we would just rap, rap, rap. And we tried to shop a demo tape, but our homies would be like, why ya’ll trying to shop demo tapes, why don’t ya’ll just make your own records…and that was it. Allhiphop.com: Describe the album to people who don’t know anything about it. Lyrics Born: The Funk Allhiphop.com: What kind of production? Lyrics Born: I mean, it’s the funk. I mean it’s kinda hard for me to…I kind of make it rather than describe it, yaknowwhatImean. So its hard for me to describe it, but I’ll just say that its very multi-dimensional, its not 15 tracks of the same tempo, I’m doing a lot of different things on the album. There’s a lot of funk mixed with Reggae, there’s a lot of funk mixed with rock, soul. Basically, it’s just my brand of hip hop. Allhiphop.com: Break down the concept of the album as it relates to the title, Later That Day. Lyrics Born: Well, I just wanted to do an album that had a wide range of emotions and feelings and subject matters, ya know, like what happens when you go through the day. Ya know, you got all these different things on your mind and it changes as the day progresses. Allhiphop.com: Who’s featured on the album? Lyrics Born: My man Lateef from Latryx and Gift of Gab from Blackalicious are the only rappers on the whole album besides me. And production, DJ D Sharp did one track, Cut Chemist from Jurrasic 5 did one track and the rest of the production I did and that’s on purpose. I didn’t want to make a rap album that’s got 8 million people on it and then I got to do a tour and I’m doing a bunch of one verse tracks. I’m not trying to go out here and have like 30 people on every song. So it’s not your average rap record in that respect. Allhiphop.com: You changed your name from Asian Born to Lyrics Born, why’s that? Lyrics Born: I just think that it’s not fair to me and it’s not fair to the rest of us, for people to assume, or for me to assume, that my experiences or my background, my history, my outlook is the same as the rest of us. Because we’re a very diverse group, within the group, we all come from different backgrounds and different histories…and it’s just not fair to me and it’s not fair to other people to make it seem like we’re all the same, cause we’re not. And that’s the mistake that people make in this country, because they put us all together, and it’s just not that way. Allhiphop.com: So you felt that changing your name to Lyrics Born more represented that diversity? Lyrics Born: Well actually, how that came up was we were freestyling one night and I said that and it was a lot of people there and for some reason that just stuck and they started calling me that. Allhiphop.com: Do you ever make an attempt to speak to the Asian community in particular in your music? Lyrics Born: Ya know, I make music to speak to people in general. I’m very aware that probably a good portion of my audience does reflect my cultural, yaknowwhatImsaying, but I don’t make music for anybody except for the human being, I don’t leave anybody out. I make music from my perspective and my goal is that it connects with everybody and that everybody can get something out of it, so no, I don’t make culturally specific music at all. Allhiphop.com: A lot of media outlets have been comparing your disc to Andre 3000’s The Love Below for various reasons, and they tend to label it alternative hip hop. As of late, trying to define hip hop has become a big thing, everyone seems to have a different take on it. What do you think hip hop is? Lyrics Born: It’s always gona change, that conversation will always be had. I think we’re in big trouble when people stop asking that question. It’s just gona change, I mean think about hip hop ten years ago as compares […]

"This is the business, and ya’ll ain’t getting nothing for free and if you devils play broke, then I’m taking your company you can call it reparations or restitution lock and load n*gga, industrial revolution" Industrial Revolution – Immortal Technique According to Immortal he and a fellow artist, Poison Pen were in Boston to do a show when they dropped by Landspeed and as the relationship progressed things got flaky. "I’ve seen other artists get paid off Landspeed. Some people make money off of it, but you know what, me and a whole lot of other people have witnessed firsthand the way that they just jerk people out of money. I took myself out of that situation before it happened. They were like ‘Oh maybe you should give us some of "Vol. 1" and we’ll put it out for you a little something.’ And then I said ‘Alright, well when do I see a return and don’t I have to sign some consignment stuff’ and they’re like ‘Nah, nah, nah. Just send it.’ And I was like whoa, whoa, whoa! What, Dog? I was like "Hold on, I heard a lot of stories about ya’ll not paying people. Now what’s really going on.’ And then they got real hesitant. "Make sure that he’s a thug and intelligent too" Made You Look – Nas Whether in composition or conversation, Immortal easily shifts between the monumental and mundane, seamlessly weaving together the practical and the political from discussing the power of popping sh*t to proclamations of high philosophy. In talking with Immortal one sees his songs come alive through his lively yet well-thought exchanges. His mind is one with his art, living and breathing, and from the abundance of the heart, as the saying goes, the mouth speaks. "I felt like there wasn’t enough stuff being said and people were talking too much about taking it back to the streets in they rhymes and they wasn’t talking about the streets. They was talking about fake crack deals that never went down. They wasn’t talking about the systematic destruction of the Black Panthers under the COINTELPRO. They was talking about Allah and Islam, but they wasn’t talking about the demonization of it. They was talking oh yeah all praise to Allah but they wasn’t talking about how the media was demonizing Islam. That’s what bothered me." "And you can’t fathom the truth, so you don’t hear me You think illuminati’s just a f*ckin’ conspiracy theory?" The Cause of Death – Immortal Technique "I don’t believe in conspiracy theories there are certain facts that we can take from world history and that we can talk about. The whole idea of an illuminati means a people that sit behind the public figures and dictate not only foreign and domestic policy but world issues world economy and I think that people who don’t understand that are kind of naive because to think that George Bush is the only man calling shots in America is a little bit foolish. I mean he has not just a conglomerate of corporate interests involved but it almost seems as if his vice president has more to so with the decision making capability of the White House than he does. You can find examples in Halliburton’s no contest bids for contracts for the reconstruction of Nations. People have a negative view of people who believe in conspiracy theories but I like seeing the reaction on people faces when you can back some of these conspiracy theories up with facts." "Word to Ground Zero. The Devil crept into Heaven God overslept on the 7th The New World Order was born on September 11" The Cause of Death – Immortal Technique "In America we like to think of our country and our nation as being more advanced than other people’s. Politically, economically, whatever. But we have fixed elections. We have political assassinations in this country too. Kennedy was killed because he was going to end the Vietnam War. He was killed by people who had an interest in continuing the Vietnam War. People who were making money off the Vietnam War. Vietnam was a black eye. America got the black eye, but the hand took the money and put it in its pocket. There were certain people who benefited from the war. Just the same way September 11 is a tragedy but there are people benefiting from that day now. People who say: ‘We need more security. Give us more money, more money, more money.’ There are weapons companies that are benefiting and this is so close to the hood and so close to the voting population that I feel like we need to speak on it because that’s the poverty of our philosophy. People are in the ghetto struggling just to pay rent; just to put food on the table for their children that’s why when you talk about sh*t like this they’re like ‘What does that matter? I don’t care about what Bin-Laden does or Hussein or whoever Tariq whatever the f*ck, n*gga, I don’t care about that, Dog. What that got to do with me?’ Actually it has everything to do with you, you stupid motherf*cker. It has a direct effect on how you live your life whether you realize or not because some people can’t rationalize politically, and I’m not saying all of them because there are some people who are broke as a motherf*cking joke that can sit down and break down the history of the world and the political spectrum a lot better than me. But, I put it like this, that the majority that are ignorant are kept ignorant. That they are put in the situation where they don’t have the time to learn. I mean, it takes dedication to do things like that and when you have three or four kids and you holding down two jobs just trying to maintain their lives. It’s a whole another thing to say and now I want to […]

10 years. Men’s will can shatter during a 10-year bid in jail. Technology has advanced in hulk-like leaps and bounds in the past 10 years. Onyx’s Fredro Starr has survived the tumultuous rigors of the hip-hop music industry for over 10 years. Whether he was altering the hip-hop landscape with his Onyx brothers Sticky and Son See or taking to the demanding (and profitable) Hollywood screen – Fredro has survived. But survival isn’t always the goal. Mindful of the beast, Fredro has sided with a pair of former G-Unit Soldiers as Onyx crumbles into nothingness. With a new crew (Silverback Guerillas), a new movie (Torque), and a new TV show (“360”) the grimy Queens native eyes another 10 years entertaining the masses in and out of the hood. AllHipHop.com: First off, what’s the deal with you and 50, man? Fredro Starr: We came under the same umbrella Jam Master Jay. I just think that its like a hood beef , its like a neighborhood type of situation where two guys from the same hood. It s a rivalry that’s been going since How to rob a ni**a. He made a comment on Sticky. Whatever happens to Sticky happens to me. We family. It’s always been like a rivalry. 50 Cent is irresponsible when it comes to the hip-hop community . He doesn’t have respect for the streets. He doesn’t have respect for the game of hip-hop. He likes to speak about people from his neighborhood and its basically indicting ni**as on wax , speaking about what they did or what they done or who they murdered or how many drugs they sold basically when you do that you disrespecting the ghetto. You disrespecting the streets by speaking about somebody else’s cases and their indictments and what they going through with the law. He doesn’t really know these people. He be talking bout people like Tah Tah and Freeze and Supreme. These are people from an era. I’ma little older than 50. I’m the same age as Pac. I’m from Pac era. He just speaking about these people from what he heard-word of mouth. When I actually know these people, sat down building with all the people that he speaks about and I would never put their name in a rhyme and disrespect them or put them in a position that they cannot deal with. As far as the rap game , he’s coming out in the rap game the same way, he’s disrespecting people. The kid is talented. He’s a genius at publicity stunts. He definitely rides the beef drama all the way ‘til the wheels fall off. I give him that for creating beef and controversy around him. AllHipHop.com: Why would he do this, in your opinion? Fredro Starr: He doesn’t respect the game. I just heard he dissed Cheeks from Lost Boys and Onyx knows Cheeks. We built outside. You got other rappers from Queens , Nas from Queensbridge and Nore but Southside we put Southside on the map 10 years ago. We was double platinum in ‘92 so basically ‘92 you double platinum that’s like selling 10 million records [these days]. I just feel that he doesn’t respect his elders in the game. The OG’s in the street or from the rap game. I’ma let god deal with the situation and keep doing my movies keep doing my TV shows. AllHipHop.com: A lot of people don’t know , he first appeared on an Onyx song Fredro Starr: Right. he appeared on “React,” the record we did. We shot a video for it. At that time it was all good with the god. All smiles all cool, everything was cool. We didn’t really know him. We gave him a shot to be on out record even though he wasn’t down with our clique. I let the ni**a rock on my record just out of respect for Jam Master Jay. I feel like Jam Master Jays death, he’s not respecting that. He put me in the game, 50 in the game. But meanwhile this ni**a talks about 2pac and Biggie like he knows these guys. AllHipHop.com: I heard you actually brought Tah Tah to him. Fredro Starr: In a song he said who shot me Freeze ‘Preme or Tah Tah. These is really ni**as on the streets who been doing they thing and me and Tah Tah is real cool peoples. He was holding me down, a real gentlemen but he’s definitely a thug. He definitely doing what he do . I thought he at least knew how [50] looked , seen his face. Tah never even met the ni**a , never even seen the ni**a so he wanted to meet 50 Cent . They met they sat down and I guess they squashed everything out. Right now Tah is facing 20 years in a federal prison so he has a high profile case and meanwhile your man 50 cent is tarnishing his name in the industry. He can’t even get a check, he cant even walk into an office building because they think Tah Tah might shoot him. AllHipHop.com: So whats the deal with your new crew, The Silverback Guerillas? Fredro Starr: Its a kid named Bang ‘Em Smurf that was down with 50’s camp [and] a kid named Domination that raps, that’s Freaky Tah from the Lost Boyz’s younger cousin. They not rocking with the G-Unit no more. I don’t know why they not rocking I don’t know what the case is but I feel that Domination has a real talent. I stepped in and we sat down with Smurf and Domination and I’ma part a company to help them build a village, to help them back up, t build Southside back up. I’m helping these guys out with their company. 50 Cent can’t take it. He can’t take it. AllHipHop.com: Do ya’ll have an album situation yet? Fredro Starr: We got a couple deals on the table. We put out [mixtapes] Groundwork 1 and 2 and […]

Technique chemically unstable, set to explodeForetold by the Dead Sea scrolls written in codesSo if your message ain’t sh*t, f*ck the records you sold’Cuz if you go platinum, it’s got nothing to do with luckIt just means that a million people are stupid as f*ck!Industrial Revolution -Immortal Technique At this time Immortal began to see the next stage in his development was moving from the battle to the recording studio. "After I got out and I won all these battles, I dedicated myself to not just being a battle MC because I got bracketed. Put it that little hole where people are like ‘Oh he’s a battle rapper.’ People would say that. ‘Immortal Technique is an ill battle rapper.’ I found it in the streets. I found it at shows. And even stupid little message boards people were writing ‘oh he’s a good battle rapper.’ I’m like oh, now I really got to write some songs. I said to myself I don’t want to be bracketed as a battle MC because I think I got a lot more potential. So I took a lot of the songs that I had written in jail and I hooked up with DJ Reach and this brother told me he’s like ‘My peeps make beats. They could hook you up with some tracks.’ So I went over there and I ain’t have no money. I was telling people I couldn’t do nothing and I basically got them to give me some tracks and I put out "Volume 1" and I worked with them and they did like most of the beats but they did all the recording. It was like off like an 1880 and a Shure mic, but they mixed it down real well. So after I put our "Vol. 1" people were like this guy is not just on some hardcore stuff, he’s on some revolutionary stuff. I did that at the end of ’99 the beginning of 2000, but we put it out in 2001 and really there’s songs on "Vol. 1" from like 1997." Immortal Technique’s name already rang bells around the battle scene but after several performances his reputation a showman also began to increase. "In terms of my seasoning, I learned the stage presence from being in the battle," said Immortal. "I can handle a heckler in the crowd. It ain’t nothing to me whether you want to handle it physically or you want to handle it lyrically; that’s up to you. But the point is that you learn a lot more than you think you do about stage presence because in the battle, even with the judges because usually the judges go along with the crowd. You don’t win by beating your opponent, you win by winning the crowd. "There were a lot of times I had to perform for free and I ain’t mind all at that because I was getting my name out there. But as I started getting my name out there more and more that’s when I was like alright you know what. I don’t mind doing a benefit show but just like "The Message and the Money." I better not be the only person that’s not getting paid because that seems to be the deal nowadays, people want to pay their mans and them; kinda’ like a political kickback. Whether you like politics or not politics is a part of everything. ‘Oh, I’m not into politics.’ Well then you must not be into life you dumb-ass n*gga ’cause that’s what life is. Life is politics. "So in that respect I grew very angry with the scene because as the battle scene deteriorated and I had won so many battles I got this thing called the "Unsigned Hype." After I got the "Unsigned Hype" in The Source some labels hollered at me. But their whole image of success was me changing the persona of who I was. They wanted me to make the type of records that I would just feel embarrassed spitting. I’m like this isn’t me. This isn’t who I am. This has nothing to do with hip-hop. This is party music and why are you dictating it? You don’t know hip-hop. You’re just using it to market a product in the future to them. "That’s the problem in hip-hop. That’s the situation in hip-hop. That people are using hip-hop today to market their product to a different audience that they normally wouldn’t have access to and when I said that at Rock Steady, the sponsors cut my mic off. And then Crazy Legs came back and was like; nah you got to let him rhyme, you got to let him say whatever he wants to say." "I think hip-hop is standing on a cliff right now and there are certain people are trying to pull it back and say: ‘No, no, no! You’re too close to creativity. We might lose control of where it’s going to go.’ And there are people who have decided to just fly around in the air and tell hip-hop ‘Nah, come on. Just walk with us. You could walk in the sky. You can live without boundaries.’ There’s good and bad things that come with that. There’s abstract hip-hop that I think is not hot. People just rambling with big words on the microphone that really don’t say anything. "I take a p### on a development deal from Sony, or Def Jam cuz your like all of the rest man" -Obnoxious – Immortal Technique Immortal’s excursions into the music industry led to him putting himself out on his own imprint Viper Records. On the album, along with the music industry in general, Immortal calls out independent label Landspeed by name. "My beef with Landspeed, it’s not like I want to kill those cats. They’re just geeky white people. They’re no threat to me." says Immortal . "I don’t have no serious issue with Landspeed and I say that because I don’t want them to be […]

Seated in the rear of parked RV on a wintry December afternoon, DJ Kay Slay is waiting. In fact, he’s been waiting for four hours. And with no communication between him and label reps inside the Brooklyn warehouse where he’s filming the lead video for his sophomore effort, The Streetsweeper, Vol. 2., Kay Slay begins to boil. “Where the f*ck is my food,” he yells, after being told it’s on the way for the umpteenth time. If we’ve learned anything about Kay Slay, it’s that he doesn’t tolerate disrespect. Now, the Drama King returns spewing vitriol at all who stand in his way. Okay, he’s reloaded. AllHipHop.com: So Slay, what’s going on with the album? What’s been the changes since the first one dropped? Kay Slay: The changes on this album right here is that it’s being done with one situation. My last album started on Violator, then it went to Columbia, then to Sony Urban. So this one here is starting off with—well actually, it’s called Sony BMG now, because they merged again. AllHipHop.com: Is the album title staying the same, like the mixtape [the original Streetsweeper series]? Kay Slay: Yeah, it’s The Streetweeper Vol. 2, but it’s subtitled The Pain From The Game. It’s just really expressing the pains through this. Everybody thinks that you get a deal and it’s rosy. Nobody talks about how artists get raped for their royalties and their publishing. You know, all you really do is get an advance. After that, unless you sell Eminem numbers, you ain’t going to see no paper. That’s where you just gotta build a name to establish that credibility to sell units, where you can get a production deal, a joint venture, or something to see your paper. It’s just a stepping-stone. People don’t really know about that. It’s not a really as sweet as it looks. It’s a really hard struggle. At the end of the day, you could come out this s### broke. Nobody expresses the situation to the younger brothers. The intro of my album, I speak about the b####### politics, and so on and so forth, in the game. It’s just another learning experience coming from me; trying to put some knowledge in the music industry. AllHipHop.com: Do you think coming from the mixtape game, that you are your own A&R? As far as doing the legwork to get people together because of the relationships you have from putting out the original Streetsweeper mixtapes. Kay Slay: Both A&Rs I’ve had, I actually know more about music than them. I’ve been deejaying for like 27 years. What can you tell me about a track, about an artist’s flow, or anything of that nature? You might have just got interested in music six or seven years ago. You might have want to school to learn about it. It’s something that I went to, from the house parties, out to the park, to the centers, to Bronx River, you understand what I’m saying? I watched hip-hop evolved into what it was. Cause, even before hip-hop, I was playing disco records, I was playing my mother’s old records. I ain’t have no two turntables and a mixer; I turned one component set up, and brought the next one up. So its like, what can an A&R tell me? You can give a suggestion, but you can’t direct my album the way I can. And 90 percent of artists don’t respect them. So if they go to them to get them on the album, I may hear some dumb s### like $50,000 [to be on the album]. As opposed to if I step to them, it’s going to be like you wash my back, I wash yours. Or in some cases, some brothers’ careers might look big, but it’s really not and they may ask for 20k, and you know, we work it out like that. AllHipHop.com: How is the process different to you when you put together a major album versus a mixtape? Is it more business, or is the love still there? Kay Slay: With me, it’s still the love. Cause with me, I know, in all actuality, this is what’s going to help me get to the next level. It ain’t like I’m going to get a gang of paper for doing this album [laughs]. But I always look at the situation that comes after. The difference to me, you getting other people records for mixtapes. On the album, YOU making the records, so it’s definitely more love. Cause at the end of the day, you made this record. This record represents you. If it’s trash, mufuckas is going to look at you like, “You heard that s### Slay put out. But if it’s hot, it’s going to be like, ‘Yo, n#### did his thing.’ So it’s definitely way more love when you doing an album. Especially when you spending money to do the records and money to be in the studio and so on and so forth, rather than you just taking a n#### record he gave you and throwing it on a mixtape. AllHipHop.com: With your mixtapes, you got plenty of people throwing records your way, is it the same when you put together a major album? Kay Slay: It’s the same; It even worse, now. I got a lot of people throwing records at me and I feel bad, cause it’s too late. They have to wait for the next go round. I got 27 records and everything isn’t going on the record. It’s hard. I like every record I do. Then it’s hard telling somebody, ‘yo dog’ [laughs] AllHipHop.com: You ain’t making the album [laughs] Kay Slay: You know what I’m saying? I know how people take this s###. They take it to heart. AllHipHop.com: Cause you got a face, they know where to find you. They can go up to Hot 97 like, ‘Yo Slay.’ Kay Slay: Nah, nah, they ain’t coming to Hot 97 AllHipHop.com: I’m just saying you […]

Bed-Stuy Brooklyn. Million Youth March. A Che Guevara of an emcee laces the crowd with politically astute, precision-crafted punch lines delivered with a veteran performer’s polish and timing. Along the way, he tears a new a### in the mindscapes of the assembled mass, ending his set by telling the crowd to put a middle finger to the sky in order to send a proper greeting to the C.I.A. spy satellites. The emcee is Immortal Technique. Harlem USA. Five Percenter National Headquarters. In the next room some “older gods” are engaged in a lively debate on Osama Bin Laden as a direct result of the cover art on Immortal Technique’s “Revolutionary: Vol. 2.” Immortal is in his glory. The heated conversation is precisely what Immortal sees as one of his primary objectives. “In terms of my political stance and where I want to stand and the way I’d like to be remembered; I am the spirit of argument and discussion. The album was created itself to create a discussion since all discussions were being knocked off the board; since people didn’t want to discuss anything,” says Immortal. “Making music is one thing but when you’re involved in direct action that’s a whole ‘nother story. If your music can influence direct action then that speaks to great lengths about what type of music you make.” Indeed, while the album’s cover art alone is enough to raise eyebrows, raise questions and get people to raise their voices in debates that may raise the level of consciousness, Immortal Technique’s “Revolutionary: Vol. 2” embodies a work of artistic innovation in direct opposition to the current course of commercialized Hiphop cultural product. “The bling-bling era was cute but it’s about to be done I leave ya’ full of clips, like the moon blocking the sun” Industrial Revolution –Immortal Technique From the album’s introduction by Mumia Abu-Jamal and the opening cut “The Point of Return” you know that you’ve left Kansas far behind and this is a Hiphop world akin to something George Orwell would have penned. “Peruvian Cocaine” shoots the concept of the posse cut to a next level with each of the seven emcees adding a thread to the narrative of the path cocaine travels to reach the city streets. The story starts with the rural field worker and moves from druglord to C.I.A. operatives and crooked cops all playing their position in the pipeline. Songs like “Obnoxious” show that even Immortal’s most outrageous concepts and battle rhymes take a stance and make a political statement. The jewel of the album “Industrial Revolution” is a treatise on changing the game featuring scratches courtesy of Dj RocRaida that makes that Roc La Familia track off “The Dynasty” album lackluster in comparison. “Revolutionary: Vol. 2” is a dizzying array of aggressively, yet accurately articulated adjectives and mind melting metaphors that elicit ecstasy from the ear and epiphanies from the mind. Track after track of critical compositions pry into our apathy and awaken the side of Hiphop within us that was implanted by Public Enemy and recently only fed by a handful of artists like dead prez. Immortal Technique’s undying method quenches the parched throat of the consumer in ways that your average neo-soul, wheat-grass wielding wordsmith can never attain. “Immortal Technique is the warlord of raw dog,” he says of himself. “ I put it out there. Facts. I put out street knowledge. Immortal Technique is the truth.” Immortal’s hardcore righteous with emphasis on the streets and brolic beats is a welcome departure from the incense and oils that dominate the so-called progressive wing of rap music. His battle aesthetic puts him in a league above all other extraordinary gentlemen. “Revolutionary: Vol. 2” epitomizes what KRS-ONE meant when he coined the term “edutainment.” It’s hilarious and a history lesson. Lyrics that make you press rewind on the tape deck but also echo in your mind. As you listen you are intellectually injected with a wealth of information and the rhyme animal within gets to feel the rush of well-crafted wordplay. “My metaphors are dirty like herpes but harder to catch Like an escape tunnel in prison I started from scratch” Industrial Revolution –Immortal Technique Immortal’s journey began when he was nine years old, spitting his early rhymes to break beats on the radio and as time progressed his abilities grew from there. “Little by little I realized I could do this,” says Immortal. “At first I didn’t take it seriously at all. It was more of a recreational thing. Having fun.” Back then Immortal says that he was more involved in “reprehensible behavior” and whylin’ out but he was already moving in a determined direction. “There was this one time rhyming with my peoples and the freestlyle just took over and it was just like it was someone else I felt like, but it was really me. It was like I was opening up my eyes and being like wow I can really do this a whole lot better than I thought I could, and then I sat down and started writing rhymes and the rhymes that I wrote were concise and they followed a certain point and I was like cool, this is real. This is more real than I expected it to be. “As I started putting the words together it was more of a hardcore sense ‘cause I was still going through that youthful phase where you want to fight the world and where everything just seems to be against you and when you walk through the hood, not only the police but your own people. So its like a lot of people develop that warrior mentality but without no direction. That’s really the issue I see out there in the street.” A turning point occurred when police arrested a friend and Immortal was also detained when he foolishly acted against the cops in a youthful attempt to defend his companion. “Just down in the tombs. Me and my boy back to back and […]

5 COMEBACK ARTISTS Biz Markie While Biz had been holding it down as a great DJ, his artistry hadn’t been seen since ’94. Biz’s biggest budget album (minus the sample suit), is something to warm your winter. Thank you for making the record funky Biz. Kool G Rap G Rap’s album last year was too little, too late. But his new group, 5 Family Click, and guest drops has the streets of New York, and everywhere else, talking. MC Lyte One of the greatest MC’s to ever do it, let alone females, Lyte still finds her place in the scene fifteen years deep and got a Grammy nomination. MF DOOM DOOM dropped not one, not two, but three plus albums in ’03. And all three were welcomed, unique, and celebrated. DOOM is a champion of the underground. We’re looking forward to three more in ’04. Ja Rule The Hate Monster reared its ugly head at Ja for all the wrong reasons. His 2003 album, Blood In My Eye, saw the return of the hardcore rhymer we loved on “Holla, Holla.” Even though it was a lil’ heavy on the 50 Cent, this one can be considered a comeback even though in 2004 the “regular” Ja plans to come back. 6 ALBUMS WORTH ANTICIPATING FOR 2004 Nas Untitled (Columbia) Beef aside, when Jigga steps down, will Nas reign? It’ll take a hard album to prove it. Will he poke shots at 50 Cent? Will he have an ode to Kelis? Hopefully Nasty Nas learned a thing or two from the remix albums of ’03. Take it back back back. O.C. – The Professional (Grit) We’ve heard part of it. Expect an album comparable to "Word Life" with O.C.’s triumphant return. Production will be handled by Soul Supreme, 9th Wonder, and maybe even Large Professor. Can we get a Buckwild track? Whatever, O.C. is DOPE! Still so funny when it comes to the snaps. Kanye West – College Dropout (Def Jam) This album will either be bananas or peels. Kanye’s performances on Def Poetry Jam, and his lead single were impressive. Too many guests may hinder this album (and internet leaks…thirsty bums, but timing is everything) soon as dukes gets his mouth fixed, we wanna hear what comes out. A Tribe Called Quest – Untitled (Violator) For five years people refer back to Native Tongues as a point of GREAT, MISSING hip-hop. Tribe and De La Soul will give us both a reason to be joyful. Hopefully Tribe will keep it in-house and very consistent with their previous work, heavy on the bass, low on the treble Konfusion – Untitled (Grit) Like Tribe, Organized Konfusion is another group we need back. Pharohe Monch, Prince Poetry, and newly added affiliate, O.C. will be on to bring the heat. Preemo, Large Professor, and others are already on the production bill. Grit is what Rawkus could’ve been. Ghostface Killah Pretty Tony Wallabe’s are still a staple but colorful robes and the ill Versace piece always puts Tony Starks in a class of his own. If “Run” with an amped Jadakiss is any indication then the Wu’s king of abstract but voracious lyricism will drop another scorcher. 5 ALBUMS YOU SLEPT ON (Just Cop Them) Sheek Louch – Walk Witt Me – Sheek crafted a solid foundation for D-Block Records. Memphis Bleek – M.A.D.E. – Honestly, some of us have been rockin’ Bleek more than Jay. State Property – The Chain Gang – Radio rocked the single but missed the album. Raekwon – The Lex Diamond Story – Damn near classic. Macho Man – Randy Savage Be A Man – Macho Man made the funniest album of the year. Hot beats too. 5 ARTISTS WE EXPECTED TO SEE, BUT DIDN’T (The AHH C.P. Time Award) Kanye West: We’ve heard it and it’s banoodles. Foxy Brown: Please, baby, please, please, please. Find a label! Rakim: Dre rejects Primo beats only to never even put a single out? We still believe in The R. Method Man: we’ve been waiting on this one since 2002. Beanie Sigel: Humbly falls back to let his protégés get some shine. Stay free Beans. And let’s not forget…Dr. Dre, Skillz, Redman, Black Rob TOP INDIE LABELS Seven Heads ABB Records Grit Records Duck Down Babygrande Shark Award for Companies Making Beaucoup Bucks Off Hip-Hop Culture Universal Music Group: this music conglomerate has their hands in some of the years biggest release by owning some of the games most successful labels [Interscope Records (Shady, Aftermath, G Unit), Def Jam (Roc-a-Fella), Geffen (Common, The Roots) MTV: Try as they might (they did give Little Brother & our own Jean Grae some shine) any given week you will find only find videos from about 7 rappers on this channel. And as entertaining as it was, Making the Band with “Da Band” was not a good look. Reebok: Since Nike has the athletic endorsers on lock, Reebok gave rappers their own sneaker lines and have been laughing all the way to the bank since. The A-1 Award for Silliest Beef Ja-Rule vs. 50/Eminem/Dre: Sitting down with Farrakhan on the day his album dropped was just not a good look for your favorite balladeer…ahem, rapper. The Source vs. 50/Eminem/Dre: This is like GQ bringing it to Pierce Bronsnan. XXL vs. The Source: A pen can take an eye out but can you really beef on paper? The Sausage Award This award is for throwaway beef no one really cared about or was just unnecessary Lil’ Kim v. 50 Cent: We liked “Magic Stick” but alas it was never an official single, thus Kim’s ire Fredro Starr v. 50 Cent: Noticing a trend here? Da Eastsidaz v. Snoop: Come on Snoop, Tray Deee and Goldie Loc – the West needs you. The Top Trends We Would Like to See End Soon Trucker Hats Leg Warmers in the Summer Spinners on station wagons Shout Outs to Jacob the Jeweler on wax Big Trucks, Benz, Beamers & Maybachs: only because our […]

PERSON OF THE YEAR (ALLHIPHOP ICON AWARD): FREDDIE FOXXX Freddie Foxxx ain’t for the kids. Rather he is for old, young, and in between all at once. This Hip-Hop immortal veteran celebrated his seventeenth year of recording with his third official album. The Konexion provided social commentary, hip-hop assessment, and Bumpy Knuckles still stuck it to ’em with "P.A.I.N.E.," which was named after AllHiphop’s own Jake Paine. Bumpy is the link between Eric B. & Rakim and the future. Foxxx has proved that he has done better without a deal than with. May the AHH Breeding Ground and all you unsigned MC’s take notice! AllHipHop commends Freddie Foxxx for making classic records, rocking unforgettable shows, and being one of the select few who backs up every last word he spits. Freddie Foxxx is not only the truth, he’s the punishment for the liars. ALBUMS OF THE YEAR Immortal Technique – Revolutionary Vol. 1 (Viper) To say Immortal Technique is ill is just oversimplifies the man, but its so appropriate. The Latino lyricist has rocked the industry from the New York underground up. With an unwavering message coupled with a ruthlessly obnoxious style, Immortal’s technique will be rockin’ for years to come. Ok, for those that need a late pass, here is a lyric. “You aren’t half the man that I am/I’ll throw your gang sign up, and then I’ll spit on my hand.” Just get it. Gang Starr – The Ownerz (Virgin) Gang Starr returned from a five year break to update the formulas. This album made bold progressions, with some success. Still, a good album from Gang Starr outshined a lot of great albums from others. "Who Got Gunz" and "In This Life" gave great reminiscent guest drops from Snoop and Fat Joe. This album will grow on the masses after the year cools down. Outkast – Speakerboxx – The Love Below (Arista) As every other genre toils with hip-hop to sound better, Outkast reversed the trend. Arguably the most daring creators in music today, Big Boi and Andre packaged solo efforts together to give us fire & ice. Both albums step in different directions, but please even the most conventional head. The wordplay, the production, the eclectic guests, the fashion: Outkast is the new Parliament Funkadelic. David Banner – Mississippi (SRC) His name dubbed after the Incredible Hulk’s weaker half, but there is nothing lame about David Banner. Although he’s been around for years, Mississippi: The Album solidified his position as a legit rapper and a surprisingly talented producer. He’s one of the few rapper’s that could get away with the mack daddy anthem "Like A Pimp" and the conscious "Cadillac on 22’s." Word to Emmitt Till. 50 Cent – Get Rich Or Die Tryin’ (Interscope) Everybody knows that 2003 was 50 Cent’s. What more can really be said? He’s broke sales and airplay records and, even though he started the year in jail, he ended up flying higher than any other by crafting a slice of urban guerrilla. Like Em, 50 was a marketers’ wet dream with his ability to hold the attention of men, women and children with Get Rich Or Die Tryin.’ Runner Ups: Jay-Z The Black Album, Missy Elliot Under Construction INDEPENDENT ALBUMS Of THE YEAR (The A-Train Award) Little Brother – The Listening (ABB) This album may be the most timeless of those released in 2003. Organic, soulful production mixed with lyrics that chronicle the lives of ambitious twenty-something MC’s. At the beginning of the year, Little Brother was the "Who?" topic of conversation. By year end, they were a part of Jay-Z’s blockbuster. Coincidence? No. This album is a classic. Brother Ali – Shadows on the Sun (Rhymesayers) This LP has lyrics influenced Nas, delivery by Ice Cube, and beats that compete with anything on the radio. Brother Ali’s first official full length came with a lot of emotion, a great deal of arrogance, and some fabulous storytelling. This album celebrates what is expected of an MC, but doesn’t sound pretentious or basic. Rarely is there stuff so good that you need to hear it to be a better liver. Check "Forrest Whitaker" and "Picket Fence." Soul Position – 8 Million Stories (Fat Beats) Ohio and Hip-Hop can be in the same sentence without the word, "Bone". This album, like Joe Buddens’, was fueled by emotional tracks. Blueprint proves himself as one of the most versatile MC’s in terms of content. RJD2’s productions are rock/blues inspired, which will be a popular oncoming trend after Eminem’s forthcoming promise. Black Moon – Total Eclipse (Duck Down) Everybody wanted Black Moon to reunited, and they replied with this album. The group displays their veteran skills, without being afraid to experiment and keep pace with today’s stars. Tracks like "Confusion" and "Pressure Iz Tight" remind us why Black Moon is a group that was able to change hip-hop in the 90’s and stay for the ride. Swishahouse – Madsh*t! (Swishahouse) We can honestly say that we don’t know which of their albums we like the most or when these albums actually came out. They have a deep crew with names like Pall Wall, Chamillionaire, Mike Jones and Magno. But we can say for certain that the Northern world needs to hip itself to the sounds coming out of the Swishahouse. They didn’t invent screwed music, but they can make a New Yorker feel like he sipped on some sizyrup. Just head over to Swishahouse.com for a sample and you can even cop their albums over there too . Runner Ups: Baby Blak Once You Go Blak, Tragedy Khadafi Still Reportin’, Jedi Mind Tricks Visions of Ghandi, Louis Logic Sin-a-Matic, Canibus Rip the Jacker, Cunninlynguists SouthernUnderground TOP 5 ARTISTS OF 2003 (ARTISTRY) Outkast Their album contorts the conceptions and conventions of what hip-hop is supposed to sound like. After Jay-Z Jigga’s concept for The Black Album returned to the traditional format: No guests. No filler. Shorter albums. Artistic Immortal Technique Immortal Technique will be likely to make […]

AllHipHop.com: Big Boi, on “Reset” you have Khujo and Cee-Lo who are rumored to have beef due to the break up of the Goodie Mobb. Were there any problems getting them together to do the song? Big Boi: Actually they got a lil something goin on but it ain’t really nothing. Basically it’s like, Cee-Lo wants to step out and do his solo thing, and Gipp wanna do his thing, and Khujo gonna do his thing. So it ain’t no real beef <I>beef </I>like that. But to do the song “Reset” I wanted to have an old-school Dungeon Family type feel to the song and I wanted to get Cee-Lo and Jo, and I woulda had one more on there like T-mo, but the song was too long, so we just kept it like that. It was actually love. I had told both of them about it, cause there was the whole sub rift thing going on, but they was like, ‘man, whatever. Cool folk, we family’. So they let it happen. But, we gonna have to sit down and talk to them and try to see what’s goin’ on with the Goodie for real. AllHipHop.com: Ya’ll did a lot of production on your albums. Andre, you produced your whole joint? How long have you guys been producing, and what made you decide to jump it off on this album? Andre: It’s not common knowledge but we’ve actually been [producing tracks] since ATLiens. Like “Elevators” and “Extra Terrestrials”, those were some of the first beats I ever worked on. And so now, since it’s not under the same name or companies, people think we just jumped and produced our own albums. And Big Boi has been producing tracks since that time as well. It’s funny cause for us it ain’t nothing new! It’s just different names. AllHipHop.com: Big Boi, you worked with Jigga on his last album, and he’s featured on your side of the album on the track “Flip Flop Rock”. I’m sure ya’ll are aware of his plans to retire. Do you think he’s really throwin’ it in? Big Boi: As far as Jay-Z retiring goes, this is ‘bout what, the third time he done retired, right? Raheim the Dream retired bout two or three times, Too Short did bout two times, I think this is ‘bout Jay-Z’s second or third time retiring. Michael Jordan retired like two or three times. You never know what they’re gonna do. Good artists, musicians, lyricists, the whole nine. I dunno if it’s to wake people up like, ‘This is my last one. You better go out and get it.’ Or if he’s like, “F**k it. I don’t wanna do it no more. I made my mark”, you know what I’m saying? But there’s always something about it that might bring you back to the game. So you know, you could retire and jump back in whenever you feel like it. So, much love to Jay-Z. Dre: We ain’t retiring no time soon, but I definitely don’t wanna be no old man rappin.’ I will tell you that! I’m only 28 but boy, sometimes them rhymes get rough. Sometimes you gotta find something to talk about. And that’s when you get the ‘woobitydoopty and dippitydipty’ on the microphone. I think certain things can drive you to retirement, but at the same time, certain things can bring you out of retirement too. So, I mean, I don’t think he’s lyin or that it’s just a bullsh*t line, I think at this point he really feels that he wants to do something [else]. But man, sometimes you can be at home watchin’ a video and be like, ‘Maaaan these n##### are really bullsh*ttin on the microphone’ and that will be the day when you’ll be like, ‘Lemme say something’. And that’s when you come right up outta retirement. You never know. AllHipHop.com: What’s up with Killa Mike, Slim Cutta Calhoun, and Konkrete? Big Boi: Killa Mike is workin on his album right now. It’s comin along and it’s harder than a b####. My boy Ray from Organized Noise is heading up the production on it right now, he’s like about four or five songs in, but it’s like Killa Mike, so hard. Slim Calhoun, he’s collecting tracks, I think he’s a track collector now. And we tryin to get it together with him. There were plans to send him to the West Coast to work with DJ Quik and E Swift, somebody like that, to try to give him a different feel. Cause he’s in Atlanta and it’s hard to get him to go in the studio when there’s so much jumpin’ so we gonna have to send him out of town to work. Konkrete’s album is about 80% done now. What we bout to do is go in and lay the hot sauce on it; all the music and everything, and kinda like, pull it together. AllHipHop.com: Big Boi, for the brothas, who is shorty in the video for “The Way You Move?” Big Boi: That’s like, a friend of the family, really. That’s my kid’s auntie. I ain’t chop her though. She’s like real cool. You’ll see her soon though, she gonna be out with us in a minute when we hit the road. Her name is Toi Johnson. She was in XXL and King magazine. AllHipHop.com: For the both of you, what is your favorite track that you’ve done out of your entire career? And what has affected you most through your evolving from <I>Southernplayalistic…,</I> your first joint, to now? Dre: To ask what’s a favorite track, that’s gonna be very hard to answer because it changes from time to time, and album to album. Right now it would be this album and I would have to say, (chuckle) “Spread”. And to answer the other question, honestly, I would have to say time has affected me the most. No event has really shaped the sound, it’s really just been time; time […]

AllHipHop.com launches its recap of 2003 with OutKast and rightfully so. As one of the few acts that captured the elusive and fading art of melding creativity with endless commercial capability, the group moved millions of units and moved the souls of those that listened. At one point the duo of Big Boi and Andre were “just two dope boys in a Cadillac,” but with the release of their album, <I>Speakerboxxx/The Love Below</I>, the group returned, reinvented itself and painted further outside the lines. Yet, with this LP the brothas split their art in half and packaged it as a double set, one half Dre and the other Big Boi. Opting to do separate albums this go ‘round, the pair further pushed the envelope until it was rumored that they were breaking up. Not true. Truth is OutKast was a beacon of hope for hip-hop and a blueprint for those that want to do their own thang. Here are 2,249 words with OutKast – don’t miss one. In the heart of Times Square, AllHipHop sat before the dynamic team and they discussed a myriad of topics from their thoughts on love and war, artist retirement, and the real deal with <I>Speakerboxxx/The Love Below.</I> AllHipHop.com: The process for this album was different than the others. What were the big differences with this process than on past albums where you were working totally together? Andre 3000: Had to write more verses. That was the real challenge with the whole thing. While we were recording the album I was letting Big Boi check the songs out and he was letting me check songs out and I was askin him ‘What you like, what you like? Like I heard his stuff the whole time, I produced three tracks on his side, so there was involvement the whole time. AllHipHop.com: Dre, you didn’t rhyme much on your side of the album, why is that and will you keep rhyming? Dre: I’m still rhyming like I used to, I’m just not rhyming on this album. These songs had to come out. This is what I was writin’ at the time so this is what it was. God told me to give you these songs at the time so that’s what it was. But rhyming is still in full effect just gotta build up some new ideas and new concepts that’s all. AllHipHop.com: Andre ain’t rhyming on this joint, but Big Boi what made you stick to the script? Big Boi: I really didn’t stick to a script. I just went in and did music how I do it. There really is no set formula that’s just how we do music. As far as me personally, I’m still into lyricism and rhyming and making songs and all aspects of it so I just go in and whatever is the funkiest sh*t that jumps out, that’s what I’m gonna use so that’s what I did. AllHipHop.com: Big Boi, on “War” you really attacked some current social issues. What was your inspiration to do that track? Big Boi: It actually stemmed from the election of 2000 and we were in between records at the time. The way the election went down it was like a whole blanket of conspiracy that’s thrown over things and then something else happened. So what I was doin really was letting out a little frustration from watchin the BBC and NWI, and things like that, checkin out what’s goin on in the world. Say for instance the election, it was a controversy. George Bush’s brother down in Florida, however that went, it was up in the air, then all of a sudden 9/11 happened, right? Ok throw a blanket over the election, f**k it, we ain’t got the election no more, 9/11 happened we gotta go get these people cause they’re tryin to kill us. Okay, so not only do we go look for Osama Bin Laden, who we still have not found to this day. Where is he? We’re like okay, Bin Laden done did it but we gonna come over here and f**k with you. So they go to Iraq. Why you goin to Iraq for? They didn’t bomb the buildings. “Well, they got weapons of mass destruction so we need to go over there before they come over here and kill us and our kids and all the beautiful Americans.” Okay, we go to Iraq. We go to war, throw a blanket over the World Trade Center, now we in Iraq lookin for weapons of mass destruction. And we conquered em, and you the know the battle is “so-called” over, but you know we got 10 to 15 soldiers dyin’ a day. That’s what they tell us. We don’t know the real number you know. We go to Iraq, conquer, but there are no weapons of mass destruction, you know what I’m sayin? Throw a blanket over that, now what’s gonna happen now? It’s gonna be some sh*t. That’s why you see the terror alert is elevated now and I really feel something is about to go down, and then they gonna throw a blanket over that sh*t. It’s really about getting somebody competent and responsible to run this country man, that’s what it’s about. AllHipHop.com: As a group you all are known for addressing socially conscious topics, but Andre, on your side of the album you focused on the search for love. Have you given up on love? Dre: Well honestly, I can’t say that I’ve given up on anything. I can say that the situation that I’m in, and being the person that I am, it doesn’t look very bright. (They laugh). But one thing I know is God is love, and love is God. If that is true, then it’s not even what I think. So, I mean, I can give up on it, but once again what <I>The Love Below</I> stands for is that deep down feeling below that we have no control over that’s gonna bubble […]

This year was a big year for hip-hop in many ways. Between 50 Cent’s blockbuster and Outkast’s double CD opus, rappers held it down on the music end. But 2003 also saw an unprecedented number of rappers launch clothing lines, get involved in politics, get robbed and get into trouble. Here’s a list of what rappers did politically over the past 12 months and who found themselves in trouble and some other interesting tidbits that we know you forgot. Activism (in no order): -Lauryn Hill emerges out of no where and tells the Catholic church to repent, at the VATICAN in Rome! -Black Panther Party launches record label -Ghostface gave away 1000 sleeping bags to NY homeless -The Source drops their Eminem bombshell, featuring the rapper using the word N##### -Irv Gotti drops Murder from Murder Inc, renames label The Inc. -Slick Rick was released from prison after being detained for over a year by the INS -Diddy ran a 26 mile marathon, raising $2 million -Eric B took on Universal, claiming that he and Rakim never received a dime for the classic album Paid In Full -Farrakhan’s meeting with Ja Rule to mediate the beef between Murder Inc. and 50 Cent -For the first time in the Billboard’s chart history, the top ten songs in one week were all by African-American artists.With the exception of the number 1 song, Beyonce’s "Baby Boy" which features Sean Paul, the other 9 songs are by rappers -Dead Prez launched their own record label -Nelly’s Pimp Juice was the subject of a nationwide boycott -Hollis Day in Queens, New York was renamed Jam Master Jay Day -Atlanta’s T.I. launched a construction company -The Birmingham Hip-Hop Summit, which drew almost 50,000 people -Rakim took his career under control and bounced from Dre’s Aftermath camp -KRS-1 won an injunction against Koch and actually held up his own release date because he wasn’t happy with the version the label was releasing -Red Alert was inducted in the Bronx Walk of Fame -Nas got down with anti-gun Public Service Announcements -Canibus showed how much he loved the United States by joining the Army -Afroman gave up weed for God -Nelly launched a non profit, Jes Us 4 Jackie, hoping to find bone marrow donors -Russell Simmons’ "Countdown to Fairness" took on New York’s Rockefeller Drug Laws -The West Coast spoke up via a Fred Wreck production featuring Everlast, Daz, RBX, Tray Deee, Dialated peoples entitled "S.T.O.P." (Stop The Oppressive Politics) -Eminem and Russell hosted the Detroit Hip-Hop Summit, drawing almost 20,000 people -UPN was almost boycotted over the hip-hop television show "Platinum," but it was taken off the air due to poor ratings before the boycotters ever had a chance -Rappers put their beefs aside to protest the war with Iraq -The boycott and caving in of Pepsi over dumping Ludacris as a spokesperson Clothing Lines: -Ice T started Ice Wear -DMX launched Bommer, a clothing line for dogs -Eminem launched Shady Clothing -Eve launched Fetish -Steve Rifkind launched Street Team, -50 Cent launched G Unit Clothing line -Bow Wow launched Shago -Def Jam launched Def Jam University -Run launched Run Athletics -Nelly launched Apple Bottom -Roc-A-Fella launched Roc-A-Wear Red Label, Wash House and Team Roc Rappers or Friends We Lost This Year: -RBL Posse member Hitman was gunned down -Camoflauge was shot and killed in Savannah, Georgia -Half-A-Mil found dead in Brooklyn -Soulja Slim gunned down -Spooks member Water Water was killed in a car accident -Barry White -Fred "Rerun" Berry -Kenyan rapper Krupt -DO Cannon -Honorable mention: Matthew Hall, the Zulu member gunned down in Harlem for no reason Jack The Rapper!: -Lil Kim lost and recovered $250,000 worth of jewels -Trackmaster producer Tone’s house was robbed of $100,000 worth of cash and jewels -Chingy was robbed after crowds mob’s him at Philly performance in the Gallery Mall. All he lost was an $800 ring -Trina was robbed of $300,000 worth of jewels in a North Carolina hotel -Big V’s $20,000 Chicken Claw chain stolen -Nelly robbed of $1 million dollars in jewels from his hotel in Las Vegas Odd News: -Loon reveals that the Harlem Shake dance craze was actually created by an alcoholic named Sisqo, who would do the dance if someone bought him liquor -Man who claimed he was blackballed from the "video acting industry," after 50’s bodyguards roughed him up on the set of a video -A man who wrecked Missy Elliot’s $300,000 Lamborghini Diablo was sentenced to three years in jail after a late night tryst that ended in disaster. -Xzibit being rescued at Bondi Beach in Australia after a rip tide carried him out into the Pacific ocean -New Jersey FBI dubbing a serial bank robber Eminem -Chicago police issuing a statement that a serial rapist looked like Ice Cube -Eminem’s mom going on television and saying that the rapper has a drinking problem -Latifah got a breast reduction (we liked em La haha) -Rodney King releasing an album: Rodney King, The Living Legend Arrested or in Trouble: -50 Cent and Llyod Banks were busted the first week of the New Year -Murder Inc.’s headquarters were raided -Fabolous was busted 2 times in one weekend -Juvenile was arrested for drug possession -Latifah was sentenced for DUI -Ras Kass went on the run due to a 3rd DUI charge. While on the lam, he tried to get out of his contract with priority. He eventually surrendered to do 9 months in the can -Trick Daddy was busted for assault charges. Later in the year he was arrested again after getting bent in the stands of a high school football game. The cops found cocaine in his shirt pocket -Luke Campbell was hit with Felony obscenity charges and banned from performing in South Carolina -Rapper Drama was arrested and charged with 6 armed robberies -Dame Dash was arrested after his son allegedly brought weed to school -Funk Flex pled guilty for smacking rival DJ Steph Lova -Freeky Zeeky was shot in […]

AllHipHop: Well, I really hope to see this book take effect to the fullest magnitude. KRS-One: Well, you’re taking the first step now. Because this interview, based on how you write it, is gonna be what it takes to galvanize the movement called Hip-Hop. A lot of Hip-Hoppers read AllHipHop.com, and this is a very important discussion we’re having right now, which by the way – we’re fifty/fifty in the leadership role. Whatever you write, people are gonna read. What is written is about Hip-Hop as a movement, is what’s going to galvanize around an agenda around, “this is what we want”. We want a two dollar minimum artist royalty. We don’t want artists getting thirty cents a record [which] sells for $10.35. We want a Hip-Hop guild, where one of us from [major Hip-Hop] organizations sits upon the guild. The guild takes a point or two from every single Hip-Hop artist in existence, period! That money then goes into a legal defense fund, health insurance, life insurance, home insurance, and maybe something – if you want to go into a plan, that you can have your kids going to college off of your first album. That needs to happen, that’s what we’re working for, that’s what takes up the bulk of our day. It’s a longer process, but in the end, we win. Right now, you turn on the television, you’d think it was hopeless. But hold on, it’s not. If I can get one message across to the readers of AllHipHop.com, it’s not hopeless! It only takes people time to grow up and become conscious. AllHipHop: Amen. KRS-One: For instance, AllHipHop.com, this is an excellent example or point. Last year, AllHipHop listed it’s best albums and its worst albums (Year End Wrap Up of 2002 / Thread in Ill Community), KRS-One’s “Spiritual Minded” was one of the worst albums depicted by AllHipHop.com. Spiritual Minded was a complete waste of time for AllHipHop.com, according to [you]. But I did see that other work of mine was very highly treated or praised. But Spiritual Minded – that was crazy, that was garbage. There was even comments about it on AllHipHop.com. I read that. I thought, “Wow, they missed the point.” But I said, “They’re gonna get the point eventually. Because if they truly love Hip-Hop, they will see that KRS-One does not use art to sell it, he uses art to galvanize a movement.” KRS-One: I asked Russell [Simmons] why he didn’t run for governor or run for mayor of New York or something like that, and really get that party started. And he chuckled and he laughed and said, “I smoked too much dust. Ain’t nobody gonna elect me.” AllHipHop: These days, they’ll elect you FOR that! KRS-One: I told Russell! I told him that! That’s the conversation me and Russell had at The Source Awards. It’s the truth. Maybe Russell should run. And I would call him out right here in this interview and say: “Russell you need to run for governor so Hip-Hop can have that political base, so we can at least have somebody to vote for!” Once we get our Hip-Hop vote together, we need to get somebody in the office. Russell, I think you’re the candidate. Start with mayor then to governor then to senator. Visit the Temple of Hip-Hop at http://www.templeofhiphop.org

We all know about KRS-One: The master, the teacher, the poet, the philosopher, the B-boy. But to what degree do we appreciate Kris? While he’s never been short on his zeal, Kris doesn’t ask much in return. How active are most MC’s approaching their twentieth year of making records? In KRS’ own words, “Why is that?” KRS is doing a lot more than making records these days though (though he still has dropped at least one a year for five years). KRS wrote yet another book. He’s overwriting a plan to make Hip-Hop into a union: spiritually and in terms of labor benefits and pensions. But like the old owl, KRS is always watching. He has very specific goals and visions, and he knows who is with him and against him. Speaking with KRS-One is a lot like being in a cypher. Throw away the outline, and see where the words take you. When caught in the cypher, a lot of people get pigeon-holed and run out of rhymes. In his third decades, KRS can’t be muted, he’s still WORD PERFECT. AllHipHop: Not many books written by Hip-Hop artists sound as fulfilling to the reader as your book, “Ruminations.” Tell me more about the project, and how it differs from your previous literary work. KRS-One: It’s called “Ruminations.” Because, to ruminate means to turn an idea over and over again in your head, to look at something from a variety of perspectives. I called it Ruminations because the book does not focus on one particular idea, the book focuses on a variety of hot topics that are being discussed on college campuses and amongst people, and so on. Some of [the topics are] spirituality, politics, voting – there’s a chapter called “rocking the vote”, there’s a chapter called urban inspirational metaphysics – which talks about metaphysics in the inner-city as opposed to the suburbs or the rain forest somewhere. There is what’s called, “right supremacy” which is a play on the term, “white supremacy”, but it’s about reparations to African Americans, I take the argument out of whether we are owed something, I took it to the level, “what does it mean to be civilized?” Are African Americans civilized [according] to the true definition of the term civilized. Are we civilized in the sense of asking for reparations, trying to obtain reparations, to ask another government for reparations? Where’s our government? Where’s our constitution? Where’s our leadership in the sense that we’ve been reperated. But then it also goes over to United States government and law and the fact that if we are citizens, then why is our grievances being ignored? An inquiry is not even being done [relating to] reparations. How civilized is the American society when it feels that slavery as a question, a race question, can be left out there with no real answer? So it talks about that for a little bit, from both perspectives, and the theme being civilization. Then of course, there’s a state of Hip-Hop, where we talk about Hip-Hop and poverty – and how the recording contracts basically keep us in a state of poverty – no matter how rich or popular we get. I also added “The Science of Rap” in the same book that was originally printed in ’95 and has become sort of a collector’s item, that’s become out of print. I printed an updated version of that book, not the entire, but the meat of it, some fifty pages of that book, in the back of Ruminations. Tavis Smiley did the forward for the book, and Dr. Cornel West introduces the CD which accompanies the book. The CD [is of] my lectures. [Dr. West] did one of my lectures with me – him talking about Hip-Hop. That’s really the book. It’s out right now, it’s in stores. People have been having a good time with it so far. AllHipHop: What have we to look forward to in this May’s Hip-Hop Appreciation Week? KRS-One: I think it’s the sixteenth to the twenty-third [this year]. The theme this year is faith. Actually, that’s it. We’re all gearing up for that. The Temple of Hip-Hop has its own meeting this week about the agenda for 2004 is. One of which, we’re very happy about is we’ve completed The Gospel of Hip-Hop. This was a lot of members of the Temple of Hip-Hop that wrote this book that I kinda oversaw and edited in some ways. But about eight people got down on this book. It took us about six-seven years to write it. It’s finally coming to a finishing point. We’re really happy about that. This book actually accompanies the Hip-Hop lifestyle. If you really want to live Hip-Hop and raise a family by Hip-Hop, master the elements, know the true meaning of the consciousness of Hip-Hop, this book is for you. This is the ultimate Hip-Hop manual. In addition to that, we’re gonna start distributing that right around Hip-Hop Appreciation Week. May, we’ll start distributing it to Temple members only. AllHipHop: Right now that book isn’t available to the general public though? KRS-One: Eventually, it’ll be public. But in about three or four years. Just the Temple members themselves will be able to have the book. Mainly, because the information that is in the book – the Hip-Hop community is not yet ready for it. I say that respectfully. We have a seven year plan (ending 2010), to educate the Hip-Hop community on knowledge of itself. The plan has been very subtle. I can reveal portions of the plan now and you’ll see it. – In 1994, we had a “Meeting of the Minds” with Afrika Bambaataa, Kool Herc, Crazy Legs, Grand Wizard Theodore, a whole bunch of other people was also there. We realized that Hip-Hop needs to have a book that outlined what we wanted our children to know in the future of Hip-Hop. We also came to a few other conclusions as how to guide Hip-Hop for […]

Before David Banner rode his “Cadillac on 22s,” they were “Ridin Spinners.” Before Lil Jon got crunk, they tore the club up. And before Bone Crusher said he was “Never Scared,” they told people, “Don’t Be Scared.” They are the Three 6 Mafia. But the Hypnotize Minds headliners aren’t out reaching for recognition. They don’t need to. They’ve been making noise below the Mason Dixon Line before the New South movement. From the frosty set of their forthcoming video with Kay Slay, DJ Paul and Juicy J brought the heat—just like they’ve done the past 12 years. AllHipHop.com: First I wanted to lead off with the situation with your label. If I have it correct, don’t you have it where you can do independent albums and then come out and do your major albums? Juicy J: Yeah, fa’sheezy. We still can do that. I feel like I’m a slave, but not a full-fledged slave. You know the master is giving us a little leeway to move around. You know, pick cotton, make our own cotton fields, pick our own cotton over here and make our own money. That’s how I put it. AllHipHop.com: So was there any problem with that arraignment when Loud Records folded? Juicy J: Nah, nah, nah, master didn’t have a problem with that. They thought everything was cool with that. You know master be good to us boys sometimes, us country boys. AllHipHop.com: We had an interview with Gangsta Boo in September, and she was talking about you tell her everything is love and support, but she said because you got the money you’re quick to say it’s about love with each other. And she said your artist LaChat couldn’t even pay her rent when she was with you. Juicy J: You know, I really don’t want to comment on people’s negativity, because I’m trying to be positive right now That’s what my mama my mama told me; She said if you ain’t got nothing nice to say then don’t say it. DJ Paul: LaChat had a house and an apartment and two cars. Boo was hating on her from the beginning, because Boo didn’t want another girl in the group. But Chat was good until she started doing other things. AllHipHop.com: With the last album, was that an attempt with the lead single and the sample you used, to branch out to the East Coast? Juicy J: When we made that song, it was just a song. If it goes to the East Coast, if it goes to the West Coast, then God bless it. It’s music that we just made, we make music for everybody: East Coast, West Coast, overseas. Whoever wants to bop their head to it. DJ Paul: Nah, I wasn’t trying to do nothing special with it. We rap about hood s###, and that’s what n##### was doing at the time we wrote the song. So I just wrote the song about it. AllHipHop.com: As far as Down South hip-hop, No Limit had their run, then Cash Money, then you guys were going to have yours when you joined Loud—do you still feel like you’re a part of that movement, or do you feel like you’re a part of the New South movement with Lil’ Jon and David Banner? DJ Paul: We from the original South that had Master P and everybody from back in the day. But it’s all South. We been dong this for 12 years, so it’s nothing new about this. AllHipHop.com: Do you think you’ve earned the props or status nationally like the people before you like P and Cash Money? DJ Paul: Nah, I don’t think we out there like we should be for all the stuff that we’ve done. I still think it’s a lot of props that’s due to us, but f**k it. Juicy J: I think we are like an off-and-on type group. Cause you know, Columbia don’t understand our music. That’s master. Master don’t understand our music, and so they have a hard time. The might promote this one, and the hell with that one. So I think we are like off-and-on. I think maybe like one day, one day we’ll get that good run. We’ve had some good runs. But we’ve had some bad runs. But we still pushing, man. The album went gold. We got Lil’ Wyte, our new artists Frazier boy. AllHipHop.com: Can you speak on them? DJ Paul: His album is in store now, Lil’ Wyte, and he about to sell 100,000 independent. Frazier boy go down in a couple of months. We just try to keep it rolling. AllHipHop.com: What’s up with Project Pat? When are we gonna hear another release from him? DJ Paul: This year. He got a mixtape that just came out called The Appeal. It got two new joints on it. He still locked up, probably until January. AllHipHop.com: You got Choices 2 coming out, is that an actual part 2? Or the second part in a series? Juicy J: It’s an actual part two, like a sequel. AllHipHop.com: Speaking of the movie, compared to Master P’s “I’m Bout It,” or “State Property,” people who have watched it feel like it’s an actual movie, because it’s that good. Juicy J: The movie went platinum, so it sold a lot and got some good reviews. It’s really an independent movie like how Master P used to do. That’s where the money is. DJ Paul: We look at as a hood movie. Because when you look at the movies that come out a lot these days, their pretty much made for white people, you know what I saying? It’s only so often you’ll get a movie for black folks, one Cube brings out or something. So in between them times, I try to keep something out there for the hood n##### to look at. I like a lot of movies, like white people movies or whatever, cause I like movies. But when my homeboys be […]

You ever look at directly at the sun? One blinding light in the hip hop universe that is and has been doing extraordinary things is Quincy Jones III. Better known as QDIII this man has been a visionary in hip hop and the complete music industry for nearly twenty years. His father, the pioneering legend of jazz and R & B, Quincy Jones, has certainly raised a successful man. From growing up in Stockholm Sweden where he says during the 1980’s the hip hop atmosphere was more pure and unbiased than in the United States to earning his first gold record at age 16 QDIII is surely a master of many talents. He toured with a group of break dancers at an early age and brought his mastery of musical production to the United States shortly thereafter. Working with legends like T La Rock and Special K, QD adjusted extremely well in his production style to fit the needs of more contemporary artists. In the 1990’s QD went from working on The Fresh Prince of Bel Air to doing production for 2pac, LL Cool J, Ice Cube, Mack 10, Too Short, and Monica. He hopes his legacy will be immortalized in a 12-part hip hop DVD collection. Already entrenched in the work he has released “Thug Angel,” “The Freshest Kids,” and most recently “Beef.” AllHipHop.com got a chance to speak with the true Renaissance man Quincy Jones III aka QDIII AllHipHop.com: You’ve been involved in a lot of projects lately, and I want to start with the most recent, the “Beef” DVD. What was your involvement in this project? QD: Yeah it was something kinda just came to me as an idea. My involvement basically was that after I finished “Thug Angel” I wanted to make basically a “Thug Angel” part two because we had so much footage left over and there was so many aspects of Pac’s personality that weren’t clarified. And I was like damn how can I clarify like his anger, and why he got in all these beefs because we had kind of left the darker side of him alone. Out of that whole thought process we thought of using the “Beef” DVD. And my involvement was as the executive producer. AllHipHop: What were your goals in showing the different aspects of beef in hip hop, and how were you trying to affect your audience? QD: Really my whole intent with it was to show people what not to do and still present it in a way that is palatable by consumers today where they will still be entertained by it. For instance, if you have a drug problem. There’s a twelve step program that details admitting you have a problem, look at your problem, and admit that your problem is over. It was a diagnosis of looking at the problem. Its kinda like holding the mirror up to hip hop and showing them (the audience) ‘here’s where were at.’ Then we’ll figure out the next step. AllHipHop: So do you feel like conflict lyrically or otherwise is bad for hip hop itself as you implied? QD: It depends how it is handled. If it is lyrically conflict I feel it makes two MC’s better. Ya know when it goes to the streets though, depending on how its handled and how publicly it goes down that it can send some confusing messages to viewers. And a lot of times I think rappers hold more power than they know. And that when it comes right down to it they can hold more power than the parents. So they have to watch the message they are handing out. AllHipHop: Why did you go from in the beginning of Beef by discussing a more lyrical conflict such as Busy Bee/Kool Moe Dee to at the end focusing on more physically violent conflicts within hip hop like 2pac/Biggie? QD: We wanted to show how battles and beefs have evolved. We wanted to show that in the beginning of hip hop, not to say people did not pass away, but it was a lot more about who was the better MC and if one guy lost one week they could come back the next week. And I think the Busy Beef/Kool Moe Dee battle showed that very well and how they’re cool now and the whole nine. Where as now as soon as somebody says something it goes straight to the streets mainly because they’re protecting their street credibility. On one hand I really understand that reality, ya know the whole reality of that kind of cred, but on the other hand I feel were kind of cheating ourselves by adhering to that standard. The only people that get hurt are us, not the record companies. AllHipHop: To switch gears for a minute, you were born in Stockholm Sweden, correct? What was it like growing up there? QD: Yes, yes. It was cool growing up there. It was kind of like a culture shock because I moved from a house in Beverly Hills with my pops (he moved to the West Coast for a few years shortly after being born in Sweden) to basically public housing out there. It was just a culture shock on a lot of levels. At the time we lived in public housing and it was just such a big difference. There’s a very large population of mixed people over there and that was basically my whole crew out there. AllHipHop: Do you feel growing up in Sweden set you back as far as knowledge and experiences with the hip hop culture because you were so far removed from NYC, Philly, and LA? QD: I think it was the other way around. What happened was is that at the time I was doing breakdancing tours and all kinds of different stuff. The first people we were introduced to were Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa, Crazy Legs, those were the people we looked up to. There was no commercial […]

Freedom. Not many rappers appreciate their freedom as much as "Slick" Rick Walters. Born in South Wimbledon, London England, the rapper came to the United States at the tender age of 11. After hitting it big and becoming a pioneer in the rap game, the rapper ran afoul of the law and served a bid in the 90’s for shooting at his cousin. The rapper kept his nose clean, but after laws post 9-11 became strickt, the rapper found himself in trouble with the INS, who claimed he deported himself when he left American waters aboard a cruise ship with the Tom Joyner Morning Show. The rapper’s freedom was snatched from him in June of 2002 and he spent the next 17 months in jail on trumped up charges stating that the time he served for his crime was enough to send him back to England. But, Slick Rick, through it all, managed to stay dignified as his team lobbied to get him out of the INS detention cell. AllHipHop.com talked to the legend, who has no plans to retire. He’s got plans for hip-hop. AllHipHop: How you doing? Slick Rick: I ‘m fine AllHipHop: You hanging in there? Slick Rick: Yeah hanging in there. AllHipHop: So uh, are you back to normal yet? Slick Rick: Yeah pretty much you know, just getting back into to the swing of things trying to get everything organized. AllHipHop: How was your holiday? Slick Rick: Oh it was beautiful, me and the kids had a little Thanksgiving dinner with the parents you know, so it was a beautiful thing. AllHipHop: I spoke to you while you were in jail for AllHipHop. I just wanted to get your thoughts on the whole situation, now that you are looking at it from hind sight. Slick Rick: Well I guess it’s another one of those learning experiences you know what doesn’t break you, makes you stronger type of a thing and appreciate what’s important to you and you know appreciate life, appreciate being in America with your family and things of that nature. AllHipHop: You were in there for a minute, what kept you strong? Slick Rick: I guess faith and your family you know the ones that stuck by you, your wife, your children, that’s what pretty much keeps you strong. My faith in God really. AllHipHop: Was it easy for you meaning inmate wise? Did people give you a pass or you know, was it that type of jail? Slick Rick: Well I mean it’s going to be rough anywhere you go but um, basically it’s an immigration jail so everybody is more worried about getting deported to other countries. In a regular jail you know you’re doing your bid then you get out of jail and go to immigration. The worse part of their bid is over. Now it’s just the thing of being deported and fighting to stay in the country. So, a lot of the people who were there were not like total hardened criminals, some were just off the street etc. etc. AllHipHop: Did you think that it would actually be ruled in your favor because it seemed that you might be deported. Slick Rick: Yeah it did seem crazy, at one point my wife was in England and was trying to look for a place for us to live, because we had already lost all of our appeals. So that was a rough moment in our life, I was already packed up and everything ready to leave, right before the judge put a stop of deportation. So that was a real ruff moment and that was almost a year ago. That was the roughest part. AllHipHop: At one point you actually bragged, well not bragged but you kind of scoffed at the notion of being deported in a rhyme. I think you said "I don’t care if they deport me, I run America." What was that called? Slick Rick: I was just being humorous you know what I mean? The whole rap was just a bunch of humorous skits together you know what I mean? It said, even if I got deported, I own America! You know just regular braggadocios stuff that us rappers do from time to time. So it was just all in fun, it wasn’t like just being straight vain or anything crazy. AllHipHop: Now initially the industry support for you was very profound and pronounced. Everybody came out the woodwork, but as time went on it seemed like it died down considerably. AllHipHop, we definitely tried to maintain some awareness. How was the support industry wise, do you have any feelings on that or how it was? Slick Rick: You can’t be in the spotlight forever you know what I mean? The story comes and goes you know. The people that mattered the most stuck by me, the Chris Rocks, the Will Smiths, the senators, the Jesse Jacksons.They are long term support. As far as fans are concerned, they are support too and you know, everybody goes through their own situation. I’m a regular folk, I’m not a Michael Jackson or something like that, so I don’t expect my name to stay in everybody’s mouth 24/7. I mean it was a year and a half. AllHipHop: What about the guy who impersonated you? I guess it was an identity theft type situation. What did you think about that when you heard about that? Slick Rick: Ah what can you think, it’s a crazy world I mean what am I Diana Ross now? I’m getting stalkers what is this a joke, you know? What can you do. .It was rough for my wife you know because she’s just out here with her mother and her very old grandmother and it’s a bunch of women with no males around. Then you got this crazy guy who is digging in your account and trying to intimidate them, so it was scary for them. I felt for them, my […]

AllHipHop: Tell me about The Lex Diamond Story. RZA produced Cuban Linx in its entirety, but The Lex Diamond Story uses a range of producers. How do you decide who twists the knobs on your records? What do you look for? Rae: I look for whoever’s got the music, whether it’s RZA or someone else. I give everybody a fair shot. The real talent is on the street as well as the dudes that helped me be who I am. You can miss the target or you can hit the target. RZA’s not on the album because he had sample clearance problems. I couldn’t use what he gave me and they (the publisher) was asking for too much. It’s more about Rae makin’ a good album and makin’ sure the music works for me and I think that’s what people gotta know. It’s about the rhymes and personal feelings. If the sh*t makes sense and the s### is talented, then let it play out. Sometimes you may pass up the gold because you lookin’ for the diamonds. There’s fake diamonds on the market, too! I’m a true Hip-Hop lyricist and it’s easy for me. I try to be conscious and I try to deal with everybody fairly. RZA helped me with my success and I helped him with his success, but he just didn’t make it on the album. AHH: You’ve been talkin’ about Ice Water for a minute. But what is Ice Water, Inc? Rae: Ice Water, Inc. is my company with Randy Spelling. We formed a venture which we call “The Fly Agent”. It’s like having an agency where one dude is 007 and he can get you so many different opportunities if you willing to deal. It allows me to get into the types of things that can market my record, as far as television, writing scripts – this company is a multimedia company that allows me to get different s### in rather than just writin’ music. I wanna be an actor, I wanna write a book, I wanna bring sitcoms to the table – we doin’ this to help Raekwon be a better individual. AllHipHop: How did you manage to hook up with Mr. 90210’s son, Randy Spelling? Rae: When you in Hollywood chillin’ a lot of people know you in the spot and people approach my family. We set up a meeting and we both talked about things we thought we could both bring to the table. We gonna give it a try. It’s something to say, “I’ve got a bridge”. AllHipHop: I always thought you and the Wu had the most relevant skits on your albums, whether to provide a segue between tracks or just pure comedy, why do you continue to use skits and pepper an album with sound-bytes from films? Rae: Those skits are made to entertain and give the music a break and go into something you can relate to. Even the interview skit [where he chastises an interviewer for redundant questions], that’s not how I feel about every interviewer – but there are some characters out there. It’s funny because it’s the s### we wanna say sometimes…it’s like lookin’ at somebody play you and you see yourself smack the sh*t out of them, but then you open your eyes and you didn’t smack them yet. They don’t realize they doin’ you wrong. Skits even the moment. I’m lettin’ you know the level of individual you dealin’ with and help you get a better picture of where I’m going. This is my way of giving the color of the picture. AllHipHop: How does it feel to be one of only a handful of MCs to get 5 mics in The Source? Rae: Overall, being a legend I feel I’ve put my work in. I feel that’s what people need to start paying attention to and I want people to keep the legends close and show the younger generation what we talkin’ about. The younger generation can forget easily and the next thing you do you have m#### f###### tryin’ to diss the legends – and we can’t have that. There’s a new set of kids that don’t know Raekwon. I was reigning supreme about six years ago, but I gotta rhyme for the old and new audience. I gotta adapt to a new audience and they gotta adapt to me. Nobody can dictate my music, but a good listener’s a good learner. We gotta break it down and let people see into my world. I gotta shove these vitamins down they throat because this is good food. AllHipHop: Can you dispel the rumors and doubters and the rest of the speculators, and say for certain what the future holds for the Wu? Are we gonna see a new album next year? Rae: We definitely gonna do an album because we know how much the fans look at that to come true, but we gotta make it when we’re comfortable and when we know everyone gonna give it the effort it needs. We sincere dudes and we gotta put it together right. The chemistry gotta be there. We took time out of our lives because we had time to do it – now we got label situations, but it’s definitely gonna happen in the new year. AllHipHop: Have you talked to Dirty since he was released from prison? Rae: I talked with him once on the phone, but he’s been movin’ around a lot, so it’s cool. AllHipHop: What did you think about the ROC signing him? Rae: I hope he does good. I wish him the best. AllHipHop: Ghost has been your partner in rhyme for quite some time. What holds you two together that doesn’t do the same for the rest of the Wu? Rae: I’m cool with all my brothers, but me and Ghost were more compatible. We just work good together. That’s why me and Ghost’s energy is good because we saw eye to eye. AllHipHop: Any plans […]

Even with the deep bass, high organs and west coast gangsta bravado of the early ‘90’s captivating a nation of heads looking to ride with Tha Row, a group of grimy MCs from Staten Island – or “Shaolin” as it was dubbed by the seminal crew – embarked on a mission to prove that rap music didn’t begin and end with hittin’ switches and making the rear view rattle. Asian influences, razor tight and versatile production coupled with a gritty and rugged raw style had listeners immersed in a living, breathing comic book with a twist of reality. The Wu-Tang Clan quickly resurrected the east coast and became the creative crew to keep an eye on. Arguably the group’s most versatile and descriptive rhyme spitting story-teller was Raekwon The Chef. Ten years and five mics later, The Chef is back with a recipe that blends a little of the old with a little of the new. The sums of the effort is The Lex Diamond Story. Read on to find out what the blunt and blunted Rae has to say about the state of Hip-Hop, Ol’ Dirty, the reality of another Wu album, and . . . Randy Spelling? Yep! AllHipHop.com: In ’94 you asked a rhetorical question about “Heaven and Hell.” More than 10 years into the game, are you still livin’ in the same Hell you described on Cuban Linx? Raekwon: Hell yeah, sh*t. Strugglin’ is Hell. It’s what you make it that’s Heaven. You gonna always go through that. It’s the good and the bad. AllHipHop: You’ve always balanced describing your big swingin’ d**k lifestyle with the grimiest tales of your struggle, described in rugged raw and vivid detail. What’s your gameplan when it comes to crafting an album with such broad themes? Rae: I stay vivid and I stay talkin’ about reality. You have to deal with the real world, and I’m gonna be that dude that’s always gonna be conscious of what I’m talkin’ about and basically give you me. This is what everybody chose when they chose me. At the end of the day, anything I do is gonna fall on that level. I make movies. I call these albums volumes because it ain’t just one or two songs I slap up there. I try to give you a vibe, a movement and that puts me in another category because I represent strong rap. I’m not mainstream. I’m from the gutter with it. AllHipHop: Not every head can ride to your lyrics and music – in today’s environment of overtly flossin’ lyrics with little substance, do you feel your words are going to fall on deaf ears or at least those with a short attention span? Rae: Sh*t, if real n##### know real music then they know Rae keepin’ it where it’s supposed to be. Right now Hip-Hop is sad because it’s so categorized to be so glamorous all the time and real Hip-Hop is real sh*t. I wanted to go back to that form of rhymin’ because I never left that form of rhymin’. Basically anything I do is to be more conscious of what I’m talkin’ about and give m#### fu**ers some knowledge. See, people don’t wanna hear the truth, they wanna party all the time and I understand that – but at the same time for every Heaven there’s a Hell and the Hell is dealin’ with all the fake sh*t. The Heaven is where we tryin’ to get to and give it the purity that it needs to be given. And me being an artist I’m tryin’ to deliver all worlds. I’m that type of MC. I can get grimy and talk about the ways of the world, but at the same time I can party too. And I don’t feel everything is balanced. People wanted this right here and I feel this is a great album. I don’t care what any magazine writes, they can e######### if they don’t believe it’s a good record. For me it’s a beautiful record and it’s me basically not movin’ from where I came from. It’s real raps. This is Raekwon. Food for thought, the kid, the Chef. The words symbolize me and I think I’m doin’ a pretty good job of that. I tend not to worry or see if they don’t accept it or reject it because there’s a lot of people that think like me, too. AHH: What’s your favorite record on the album? Rae: The Hood is one of my favorites. It’s basically me droppin’ jewels and talkin’ real grown. If people don’t respect the positivity in the music then how much does that person know music? I’ve been getting a lot of bad write-ups about “The Hood” and it’s just so sad to me that people won’t take time to listen to it and say “he’s comin’ with a message”. What? That makes me soft because I’m tryin’ to be smarter? Some people are feelin’ it, but some aren’t. I’m talkin’ about the place where I’m from and I describe the place as a person. Anybody that came from my struggle and dealin’ with the poverty and sellin’ crack and being in that atmosphere should know that it’s Raekwon the man and he’s just tryin’ to big it up. I’m just bein’ myself and people don’t get it that easy. AllHipHop: Describe how your style has evolved over the years, and not just since when we last heard you, but from the early days of the Wu as well. Rae: I definitely changed as an artist because I got better and I know how to put words in better perspective and I wrote over 100 rhymes. I never lost it and I don’t plan on losin’ it. It’s always gonna be on my brain and overall I’m skilled out. I am literally one of the best alive right now. Nobody can take me out lyrically and givin’ lyrics is like givin’ bread to orphans and I got loaves […]