Ozone Mag #53 - Feb 2007

nd. This shitseis e fi a e b to r la u p e “It’s gettinglapcok Hollywood, niggas on th at’s th If b . the new rowing money and shit gam pills and thdo, do it, I just learned the , I’me what you way. I ain’t about wasting a differentking and climbing.” about stac I discovered rap in a dope dealer’s car. I didn’t discover it innocently by watching BET, MTV or at no middle school dance. I found rap sitting in my uncle’s Oldsmobile Delta ‘88 listening to Ice T’s Rhyme Pays with ounces of dope around me. I can’t separate the two. That’s all I know, rap and dope. With my grandparents it was Jesus and education, with my uncle and parents it was crack and rap. I can’t rap about shit else. What else is relevant to niggas these days? You ain’t got no crackhead in your family? Why do niggas act like crack ain’t the shit to rap about? Ain’t nobody addressed the problem. No one talking about the mothers that got cracked out and ruined the black family because the fathers was already gone. You dealing with a generation of niggas that done raised themselves. You dealing with post-war victims. What else is relevant in the black community, for the last twenty years?

Is that pretty much what we can expect from your solo album?

16 In The Kitchen ain’t about me being a bad ass crack dealer. It’s about a woman and her son growing up in the heyday of cocaine and how it affects our relationship and the people around us. It’s some dope shit, some Hard Boys shit, some Edward J type shit, some Sharan’s Showcase shit, but it’s all crack shit. I went from the crackhouse to Morehouse. We in the new crack epidemic now, all these niggas on these pills. I’m old enough to have seen the 80s and young enough to have seen this shit.

I remember when a nigga came to my momma house saying he gave a bitch some freebase and she sucked his dick all night. I remember when niggas would hit crack because they wanted to freak off with a bitch. Replace that word with pills, beans, skittles and you have the same shit. All these niggas running around saying they geeked up. That ain’t no good word, ya’ll niggas on these pills are geeked, y’all the new junkies. I’m not judging, but I am giggling. These niggas rapping about being a crack dealer but you’re a pill head. It’s getting popular to be a fiend. This shit is the new black Hollywood, niggas on these pills and throwing money and shit. If that’s what you do, do it, I just learned the game a different way.

I ain’t about wasting, I’m about stacking and climbing. I don’t hate on no hustler, but if I see another bitch in the mall after a $3,000 night in the strip club I might hit one of them hoes in the back of the head and say, “Bitch, what are you thinking?” Spend a stack and save two, buy a rental property. Be a smart bitch, not a dumb hoe, get money.

But with 16 In The Kitchen, I just want to reintroduce myself. As a new artist labels like to put you in a stage play and play a part that really isn’t you. They don’t necessarily try to change you, just accent what they like.

Part of being an artist is being complex and contradictory through your passion and emotion. Sometimes it’s just a vibe, you have to be as human as you can be and sometimes structure keeps that from happening.

True, it seems like the last artist that was really good at that was ‘Pac. Realistically and idealistically I think I’m the closest thing to ‘Pac. A lot of people hear that and get caught up in the romantic ‘Pac, shirtless ‘Pac, angry ‘Pac, I mean the guy you got on the first album, with “Brenda’s Got A Baby” and “Trapped.” It’s funny how now all we do is celebrate being trapped. All these niggas say they a real nigga like ‘Pac, then why don’t you speak well? I’m the closest thing to ‘Pac, I know what’s going on in the jungle and in the politics and I know how to relay how it makes sense to street people. There’s niggas that’s doing it that only appeal to the incense burners and the politically left. But I can walk into any show, any mosh pit. A lot of niggas don’t think I’m hood because I speak well, but I like fat asses, weaves, Chevys and all that shit. But education is the best tool you can have, don’t get mad at me because I can use my tool.

Why don’t you think speaking intelligently is promoted more?

A lot of niggas are afraid to be who they are. I talk to women the same way I’m talking to you. If they don’t understand a word, I tell them you better go Google that shit. My Aunt Pat from Allen Temple told me, “Just because you from the ghetto, don’t mean you have to be of the ghetto.” I despise dummies. Being dumb ain’t did shit but get niggas in jail and losing money. I don’t do dumb shit, I listen to The Clipse and niggas that can rap and are intelligent.

79