URB: Do you find writing and performing a song like “Speak on You” to be therapeutic because you have to revisit those moments in your life?
Rhymefest: It’s funny that is my private irony and humor. I have to look at it and think which one is true and which one is not. I enjoy confrontation, especially when I am standing on what is right because when you are standing on what is right, you cannot lose.
URB: Going along with that idea of confrontation, on “Chicago,” you address the idea that hip-hop is soft. When do you think it started to go down this path.
Rhymefest: When it started to be politically correct. You wanna sell records, well you have to have everyone like you. Like, who made that rule. Hip-Hop is supposed to be edgy. It is supposed to be something that your parents don’t like. There are supposed to be beefs and battles. It is also supposed to be thought provoking and soul stirring. I remember when I was in school taking a grammar exam. I earned 100 %. Most of the words that appeared in the paragraph, I had heard in Rakim songs. I knew the context at which he used them. I didn’t study all year, but I passed the test. While hip-hop is supposed to be wild and edgy, that does not give it an excuse to be ignorant all of the time. On this album, I wanted to stay away from nostalgic revolution. If I am going to be the most underrated rapper in the history of hip-hop (which I am), then me and all of my fans are going to become a secret society. My fans and I will be a secret society and if you don’t know, you don’t know.
URB: The collaboration with Little Brother on “How High” seems perfect because it really seems to focus on persevering and overcoming incredible odds, with the fact that they had label issues and aren’t given as much support in their own back yard.
Rhymefest: We have a really similar story. Those are my brothers. I am an unofficial member of that group. When they said they were not putting out any more records, I was like, “We’re not?” We worked on the song together in the same room, and I think that I got stronger verses from them than I they had on their last album. I would love to a Little Brother, Slum Village, Rhymefest group. I will bring Juice, and we can all put it together, all a little Wu-Tang Clan.
URB: What would you call that?
Rhymefest: We would call it the B-Sides. Let the radio play what they want to play; let BET play what they want to play. We are on the other side of the tape.
URB: You better come out with something with the name now because if you don’t someone is going to take it.
Rhymefest: Well, that happens all of the time.
URB: Do you feel that televangelist appeal to the consumer in us, so that if we buy something we will feel better about ourselves?
Rhymefest: I think that this is the reason that the Man in the Mirror dedication album is just as good as Fugees The Score but is not held up to that standard because I did not sell it to you. It is the value that we put on things. If I walked around and call myself the new Chuck D, eventually people will think that I am the new Chuck D. Sometimes if you want to be something so bad, that will be the thing that alludes you. You can look at hip-hop and see history flash before your eyes.
URB: From “Celebration, “What is the one time in your life you would like to revisit, not to change nothing, just to relive it. “Rather than focusing on regrets, you focus on appreciation.
Rhymefest: More so than regrets in life, I have moments in life that I would want to relive. The whole thing is about evolving. If you spend too much time relishing the victory, you will lose the next battle. I sat around for four years without putting out any major project. Undoubtedly I lost fans. You can sit around relishing Blue Collar, you have to move on to El Che. When I saw all of the challenges and obstacles this album was meeting, it reminded me of my life. At that point, I had to make it out. When I was 50 years old talking about El Che, I would have to put it out. The liberation is not in public opinion; it is in putting it out.
For more of the revolution, check out some of the videos from El Che: Give It to Me T.M.S. Say Wassup
Leave A Comment!