Okay, everybody knows Rhymefest is my all time favorite person to interview. This time we got to play six degrees of separation when I informed him that one of my best friends babies daddy is a guy he grew up with. It had been almost six months since the last time I interviewed Che and I cut short a Thanksgiving Eve shopping trip to chat with him. Rhymefest's current single "Brand New" featuring Kanye West is currently in rotation. Speaking of Kanye West, Rhymefest co-wrote Kanye's Grammy Award winning song "Jesus Walks." Rhymefest's Allido/J Records album Blue Collar drops first quarter of 2006.

In this interview, me and Fest get to the bottom of this whole "blue collar" thing. Peep the interview.

What's up how are you doing today my name is Dorrie Wheeler from Thabiz.com?
Rhymefest-You cool Babygirl, I like you already. You got charisma, personality.

You talked to me before. You called me a 25 watt light bulb or a 50 watt light bulb.
Rhymefest-I remember that. I remember that too, and you made a comment about that, that it helped you or something.

(several minutes of chit-chat ensue...back to the interview)

So what's up! When does the album drop?
Rhymefest-It doesn't have a date set in stone but its looking like late January early February. I'm just finishing up the mixes on it. We want to have some good preparatory time to have it reviewed in the magazines and stuff.

The last time I talked to you, you were pretty much done recording. Have you done anymore recording since then?
Rhymefest-Yeah I did a few new songs. Some stuff with some Chicago artists. I listened to the album and I said, "I have to represent where I came from more." So I have some songs with Bump J and another guy named Mikkey.

Yeah I interviewed Mikkey too.
Rhymefest-Really? Mikkey's my man.

I'm the Chi town girl! I get all the Chi town artists.
Rhymefest-I know.

Will there be another single before the album drops?
Rhymefest-We are looking at a song…it's so hard because we have so many. We looking at a song called "Fever" and we are thinking about releasing a song with me, Mikkey and Bump J as like an underground joint to let it build up. I'm happy, even moreso than the music, the response of the people and being able to travel and see the country and see the world is really opening my eyes to a lot of things that are going on even the ways I want to approach music are different.

Have you been out doing a lot of touring?
Rhymefest-I've been doing a lot of promotional tours throughout the West Coast. I was in El Paso, Texas for the first time last week. I didn't know there were so many Mexicans in our country but now that I do, I'm like we should have hooked up with them a long time ago and black people need to learn Spanish we are going to be extinct in a minute and it ain't they fault it's our fault. We gotta stop killing our babies and abortion ain't birth control and we have to start unifying being fathers being mothers, just being real.

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What happened to the poppin'? I see the album name is just Blue Collar now.
Rhymefest- I wanted to make it simple. I wanted to make it Blue Collar to describe the average working people. I didn't want to make it so glitzy, I didn't want to be a super hero character like "He be poppin," its Blue Collar, its street it is what it is.

Have you heard of this store named Value City?
Rhymefest-Where they sell all the furniture and shit?

They sell other stuff too. That is a store where blue collar people shop. I was on my way to Value City when I had to turn around and come back home for the interview.
Rhymefest-That's some blue collar shit. So how you been doing?

Just trying to do the holiday stuff with the family…turkeys and everything.

Rhymefest-Have you started your Christmas shopping?

Yeah I got a few things just now..a few toys for the kids…but I have to go back. I want to get back to this blue collar stuff. When was the last time you had a 9-5 job?
Rhymefest-I haven't worked a 9-5 in about two years. But you know I had over 50 jobs in my life, and the last job that I had, all the jobs I had previously I was fired from, except the last one I quit and I was like, "I'm going to do music and I'm going to sink or I'm going to swim," and I've been swimming every since. Part of it is music is the only thing I have been consistent with in my life. I realized when you have something that you want to do you need to make it happen by first saying this is what it is and then walking out as if it already exists. If you don't walk out like it's there already it won't happen. If you don't say it and try to put your foot halfway out there it won't happen. You got to believe it like it's there even if you don't see it and walk out on it like its there. That's called faith. That's how the world works. That's that Jedi mind trick.

That's what I did.
Rhymefest-That's what you did that's why you are successful now.

When does a person know when to quit.
Rhymefest-When they don't believe anymore. You quit when your belief is dead.

No, I mean when do they know when to quit their 9-5?
Rhymefest-When they wake up in the morning and say, "Damn I don't want to wake up and go to this job." Not even wanting to wake up in the morning. The day before work. If it's Sunday, and all you can think about is work on Monday and it's ruining your Monday, chances are you probably shouldn't be there.

Listen to Rhymefest

Believe me I know what you mean. I can think of a thousand more examples based on people I know. When all they talk about is people and work and what happened at work. I'm sure we all know people like that.
Rhymefest-You're right. Sometimes work will ruin your day off because you are thinking about it so much. Like when you wake up and say, "I'm going to go in and quit today," but you can't muster up the courage to do it, so you do little things so they fire you…go in a little bit late. Chances are you shouldn't be there.

Can you tell me a little bit about your song "Sista?" I read about it on the website.
Rhymefest-Really? "Sista" is about, it's about man, it's real life. On one hand I go to the club and I see a girl and I go to holler at her and she breaks down telling me that she doesn't really want to be there. Telling me about all these kids she's got, don't know who her baby daddy is and all I wanted to do was f*ck her. All I wanted to do was f*ck this girl and this girl is really going through drama and I'm like damn, thinking to myself, "Who am I in her life?" I'm just another Nigga. She's just there because she's at her wits end and I'm getting ready to take advantage of this girl. In the second verse I'm talking about women in my family and things I've been through with my family with drug addicts and me having to take care of there kids while they are at the crack house. You know what I mean? Or there kids asking, "Why my mama love drugs more than me?" I said I couldn't answer. I sat down and looked at the sky, I thought it was raining but there were tears in my eyes. "Sista" is a message to women-black women in particular. I know its hard and I know ya'll go through things, you all are worth more than gold. I used to wonder why a lot of little girls in my family acted crazy and then find out they were molested by cousins or uncles. You know what I mean?

Listen to Rhymefest

I know what you mean.
Rhymefest-Women are going through so much. We talk about women in the strip club. What's her story?That's Blue Collar.

Can you tell me about the first time you heard "Brand New" on the radio?
Rhymefest-Umm….well by the time I heard "Brand New" on the radio I had already heard the radio station play some of my other songs. I was like, "Okay you played it how many times are you going to play it?" Then I was like, "Play this as much as you play Jeezy and then I'll be happy." My thing is I am never satisfied. I have that black persons syndrome, let me tell you what that is. Black people, yo we walk in the store and if somebody is looking at us or following us, we'll be like, "It's racist." But then if we walk in and they don't like look at us and follow us we are like, "Yeah they are just trying to extra be nice because we are black and they know they are racist." We are never satisfied. We are mentally messed up. My thing is as far as this music game, I ain't never satisfied. It's not that you played my record on the radio, but how many times are you going to play my record? The people need to hear this music. It's a necessity. Its not that you played my video. I saw my video on BET but how many times are you going to play my video? This is a business.

I'll tell you about the first time I heard "Brand New" on the radio. I interviewed you this past summer way back in June. I think it was September or October, I'm out here in a small market here in Virginia and I was like, "It's Rhymefest!" And my kids were like "Brand New, Brand New!" They are like 3 and 4 and they love that song.
Rhymefest-That's wonderful. I am so happy to hear that. I'm ecstatic that I can make a song that your kids can like. That's the market I am trying to reach and I encourage you to call your radio station and ask them to play it again.

Rhymefest interview copyright Dorrie Williams-Wheeler, and Thabiz.com 2005
Dorrie Williams-Wheeler is the author of Be My Sorority Sister Under Pressure and the Unplanned Pregnancy Book for Teens and College Students. She is the founder of Thabiz.com and Imissthe80s.com and writes for the Rap, Teen, and 1980s section at Bellaonline.com. She is an ASCAP member as a writer and a publisher. Please contact Dorrie for advertising inquiries, lyric writing inquiries, reprint rights, paying entertainment jobs, or general comments.
Visit Dorrie on the web at www.sparkledoll.com or e-mail her at webmaster@thabiz.com.
Rhymefest interview may not be reprinted, copied or distributed. You may link to this interview.
Interview copyright Dorrie Williams-Wheeler, thabiz.com November 2005.