After briefly discussing our names and the importance of names in general, Rhymefest asked me to do something. “Please challenge me, ask me questions, social, political, hip-hop, trivia, whatever. I’m not your average dumb rapper”. With an intro like that I knew this would be an interesting conversation.
CraveOnline: What do you think about the crop of Chicago artists like Naledge, Lupe Fiasco or Bump J?
Rhymefest: We have a chance to do something right now but we are starting off backwards. Chicago has a buzz right but it’s not going to be anything more than a buzz unless we learn from the mistakes of our predecessors.
CraveOnline: What kind of mistakes?
Rhymefest: Common and Twista, I love them dudes. Two of my top ten rappers, but they’re from Chicago and never made one song together. You got people down south who have beef that have songs together. You got Shawnna (from Ludacris’ group, DTP) who’s making some noise… from Chicago. You got Mickey now he’s on Virgin under (Producer) NO I.D. Me and Mickey are in the same crew. Kanye is the only one that really helped a lot of Chicago artists that I see. A lot of the other rappers, even myself at times have not been very responsive to the needs of our city for the sake of a movement from Chicago.
CraveOnline: How did you like being a substitute teacher?
Rhymefest: I enjoyed teaching the children. I realize though that the educational system is a piece of crap and is not designed to help your children to grow or learn. I enjoyed being a teacher.
Rhymefest shared a story about a kid who thought John Kerry was the Vice-President of the US and the expectation to memorize classroom material rather than “know” it. From the discussion of the educational system we moved on to Rhymefest’s analogy of Hip-Hop. It was an interesting, colorful and accurate portrayal of the state of Hip-Hop.
Rhymefest: Rap music is like this, lets say it’s a Karate movie. You have the skilled swordsmen, the swinging Samurai, which is Like the Jay-Z’s, Kanye’s, Rhymefest’s and Common. But then you have the Banshees and there are more wild banshees with fire torches than there are swinging Samurai. The Banshees run through the village and pillage everything and they kill the swinging samurai. The swinging samurai can chop off three banshees heads off at one time, but it’s so many banshees that the swinging samurais are on one knee fighting a million banshee, getting killed. This is why Wu-Tang has not come back out. This is why Mos Def is like, “Fuck Rap”. This is why Q-Tip is like is like “Hip-Hop is dead”. The samurais are being killed by the banshees.
Rhymefest went on to name some of the people who he thinks are keeping up the fight like Ghostface, Kanye and Outkast. And those that create and control the banshees (the Warlocks), like Lil Jon.
Our discussion then went to artists modifying their sound (or learning the banshee tricks) or style to get their music heard. That discussion then led to a mention of Mobb Deep appearing on BET Uncut, to which Rhymefest had a very specific opinion on.
Rhymefest: It’s really unfair. BET Uncut was supposed to be for artists that could not get on mainstream television. Of course a lot of it sucked, but at least it gave them a chance. You used to be able to watch BET Uncut and watch your favorite amateurs. It’s not fucking fair when Ludacris and Mobb Deep move to BET Uncut, because all you’re doing is creating another medium for the little man to get cut out of…
CraveOnline: There seems to be a lot of doubt as to J Records ability to successfully push your album. What have they done to tell you that they are the label that’s going to do it?
Rhymefest: Wow, hold on. I got a rep from J records here with me and I’m going to repeat this question to him so he can tell Clive (Davis, owner of J Records) and they can take my project more serious. Hold on.
Rhymefest repeats the question to the rep and then comes back to the phone for a second.
Rhymefest: That was a good ass question.
After some more muffled repeating of the question, Rhymefest returns to the phone.
Rhymefest: Ok, this is how I’ll answer the question. I believe that Clive Davis is the last president of a major label who cares about the quality of the artists he signs. When you look at Alicia Keys, Fantasia, Mario, David McGraw, Maroon 5, Even Cassidy…
CraveOnline: It ain’t D4L.
Rhymefest: Yeah, it ain’t D4L, it ain’t “lean with it, rock with it”. If they have the “it” (star power) and the talent, bring them aboard. J Records is his (Clive Davis) baby. This guy’s the head of Jive (Records), this guys the head of BMG. For him to put me on this particular label… J Records has not sufficiently shown and proven that they can take a homegrown rapper and turn him in to whatever… But they’re trying and no one else is trying. J Records is working with me. Right now I am in the J Records office because Simon Cowell (American Idol host/Assistant Head of J Records Media Department) is like, “let’s do these phoners” (phone interviews). I have a label that believes in me, to a certain extent. I am happy and fortunate to sign with J Records.
Rhymefest: How did you hook up with Mark (Allido Records owner/Producer) Ronson?
CraveOnline: I got offered a deal from Kanye West and I got offered a deal from Mark Ronson. I signed a deal with Mark Ronson over Kanye West because Kanye is my friend; he’s like a brother of mine. I figure if I did business with him, I didn’t know how it would turn out and I would hate to lose a friend over music. With Mark Ronson, I felt as though I could gain a friend and still have my business. It turned out exactly that way, Kanye and I continue to be friends and do music together and Mark Ronson got me signed to J Records.
On the album, Blue Collar Rhymefest worked with the late Russell Jones (aka ODB, Old Dirty Bastard, Big Baby Jesus, etc) from the Wu-Tang Clan on the song Build me up.
Rhymefest: What was it like working with ODB?
CraveOnline: Working with ODB was incredible. It’s like dude was really an Old Dirty Bastard. You should feel bad about saying something like that but… He would come in and be a little incoherent but I tell you what, when he got in that booth and started singing… It was when the singing took place that’s when he came to life. I’m fortunate to have had the experience before his untimely demise.
It was an interesting conversation to say the least and Che Smith is definitely not your average dumb rapper either. Be prepared, July 11th, The album “Blue Collar” hits stores. Rain or shine the album will be in stores on JULY 11th!
On the web at: www.rhymefest.com or www.myspace.com/rhymefest
