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Hey, how are you doing? I just have a few questions
for you today.
Rhymefest-Let me tell
you something before we get started. I aint no dumb ass
strip club rapper, I aint no inarticulate dude. I just
ask you to please challenge me and ask me anything you
want social, political, cultural, girl we can talk about
anything, the club whatever you want to. Don't be afraid
to challenge me.
I've never been afraid to challenge you. I just know there
are usually time constraints and we'll be on the phone
all day.
Rhymefest-You
are the last interview today so don't worry about it.
Do you ever hang out with the fans after the show?
Rhymefest-This
is a problem of mine. Lately, a lot of my fans are becoming
friends. One thing is it goes into the reason why I do
music. When I rap and when I do music, its coming from
somewhere. This is something I feel has been given to
me as a blessing. So it's like to go on stage and rhyme,
and to write and I be so amazed that people like it. It's
like they hear it and they are like "We like you." "We
Like you as a person." I'm like, "Really?" It kind of
takes me off and you know I find that people who are like
me, like minded, like spirit, as a people we attract each
other. So I have gained many new friends and family I
consider based off of my career. Yes, I do spend time
with some fans and build friendships. That's what its
ultimately about. Building a base of people who share
similar likes.
Here is a question. I know you are out there on the
road and doing shows. There are so many people who want
to be where you are right now. How do you handle a lot
of people saying, "Hey man can you listen to my music?"
"Can you help get me on?" How do you deal with the up
and coming rappers who expect you to just help put them
on?
Rhymefest-Well you
have a few different types of people. You have people
who are really sincere and they have their CD ready. In
those cases I take their CD's and I listen to them. If
it's any good I pass them along to somebody who can possibly
help them get to where they want to be or I'll call them
and tell them they should do this, this and this, whatever
my advice is. If it's really, really bad I compile it
in this pile. I plan on making this mixtape called The
Worst Songs Ever. It would be a compilation of the
worse songs that I collected during my tour. You are like,
"I don't know if that's nice."
No, I know this is going to sound kind of mean, but
I have a pile like that too. I'm just waiting to learn
how to recycle though.
Rhymefest-I don't
want to throw their music away. People should hear it
and hear how bad it is. I'm kind of suffering from the
pack rat thing because I don't throw a lot of stuff away
and I do give everything a listen. Some people are just
not ready to be in it. If they aren't ready to be in it,
I tell them. My whole thing is, what I call Real Nigga
Talk. We do honesty. I do honesty with my relationships,
with my relationship with people. This girl came to me
and said,
"I want to rap." I said,
"Let me here something." It was not real good. I said,
"How long you been rapping?" She said,
"I just started last year."
"How old are you?"
"25."
"Baby, it ain't for you. You doing it for money. You cute,
you gotta a little ass, you feel like Trina made it I
can make it."
Those people I try to discourage from being in the industry.
Yo, even if you do make it, even if you do make money,
that goes against what my mission is. You know what I'm
saying. That's the wrong reason. You should be in this
to make music and make good music. Not just because you
want to get paid and you want to get out of the hood.
This is the problem with our children. They want to rap
or they want to play ball and whether they do or don't
have the skills to do it, it's a quick way to make money.
It's like selling drugs. It's like prostitution. Just
like whatever. There has to come a time when our people
have to be like we got to get educated. We have to learn
a trade that we are good ad. If you go into rap music
to make money you are going to destroy yourself. All money
does is whatever your vice is, it increases it. You like
women? You're going to have more women. You like drugs?
You're going to have more drugs. People who just get into
something for money and they have no knowledge or love
for it or expertise their not balanced to begin with.
This kind of goes off of what you just said. I have
a friend who teaches at a high school in Chicago and she
says that all of her students want to be rappers, singers,
athletes or models and I always get so much mail from
people wanting to become entertainers. Why do you think
so many young people want to get into that form of entertainment.
Is it stuff they see in the media?
Rhymefest- Because
we glamourize it. We make it seem like #1, this is your
only choice …Nigga. There used to be a day when you have
a Malcolm X. When you say to the teacher "I want to be
a lawyer," and she would tell him, "No, black people can't
be laywers. You can be a carpenter. Carpenters nice."
Now we do it to ourself. There is a saying Fredrick Douglas
said about a slave, he said if you didn't have a back
door a slave would make a back door to walk out of because
they are so mentally messed up from the conditioning they
would make a back door for them to walk out of so they
wouldn't walk out of masters front door. My thing is that,
that's the psychological effect of what the radio and
the television are doing to your children. They made their
own back door.
Like "Ooh I want to be like Jeezy…I wanna be like 50…I
get rich or die tryin', I wanna sell snow. I know they
say it ain't right but that's just something they say."
Also, lack of parenting. I can't just sit up and blame
artists, although we do have blame because we glorify
it, but people don't realize that a lot of these dudes
you see on TV is broke. Is living in turmoil. Is drugged
out. And women. Women are whores. A lot of women in the
industry are whores period. I've seen them. I see how
they get down. I see who all they have sex with. I see
who's coming at me in the industry. Yo, I'm not passing
judgement, I ain't the most righteous dude, I have my
vices.
So do you get down with the ones who are whores?
Rhymefest- I have.
I have but my thing is that I do recognize what's real.
I'm not saying, "Yo look at all this bad stuff, stay away
from this bad stuff." That's been the problem. We don't
recognize what's wrong and accept the consequences for
our behavior. It ain't the wrong behavior that I'm mad
at. What I'm concerned with is accepting the fact that
the behavior is wrong. That's the first step.
You have to recognize wrong to know right from wrong.
Rhymefest-The problem
with our young people is we don't even know right from
wrong anymore.
Can you tell me all about the AOL
Sessions that you recently taped?
Rhymefest-Did you
watch it?
You know what? I saw the pictures, I saw the stills
from it but I haven't had a chance to watch it. I plan
to watch it tonight.
Rhymefest- Well you
know. The AOL sessions was a beautiful promotion tour.
The AOL people loved me, I love the AOL people. I used
to go in there often and talk to them about my album.
I went in there and I said, "Look at all these white people
sitting around the table, where the black people at, ya'll
fucking up." They just laughed they thought it was the
funniest thing. They were like, "We want to use him for
our AOL Sessions." They have the sister as the radio disc
jockey, I said, "She needs to be at the table."
I said, "After this we are going to have a quiz,
whoever pass the quiz of the questions that I asked, this
is to see if you all are listening I will give you all
free mix CD's. I will give you the goodie bag." I
had these goodie bags with mix CD's and Snicker bars.
So I am asking these big board members pop quiz questions
on the things I had just asked them, and some of them
aren't getting the answers. "You weren't listening,
and you weren't listening and you were." They were
like little kids. These white people who are investing
in this major multimillion dollar billion dollar company
were like little kids and the black woman was like,"He
fucking stuck it to the man for me." And then they
were like, "We want to use this dude for AOL sessions."At
that time I realized there was a way to fight the system.
It isn't always going head first.
It's with Snicker bars and candy?
Rhymefest-Sometimes
you got to use a goody bag.
Stay tuned for Part 2 of our January 2006
Rhymefest Interview!
Related Links
Rhymefest
November 2005 Interview
Rhymefest
Summer 2005 Interview
Rhymefest.com
Rhymefest at Myspace
Listen to Rhymefest (coming
soon) |
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 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
January 2006.
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