The Interview:
TWV: How was that film (Redtails), did you see it yesterday?Copywrite: Aw, dude. I walked out, my grandma was in the hospital. I kind of had to dip out and handle that.
TWV: Is everything okay?
Copywrite: Ah, you know. Basically she is getting worse; she doesn’t feel worse but she’s definitely getting worse. It is what it is, but thanks for asking man.
TWV: Yeah, I have grandparents that are probably the same age so it’s one day at a time for them at that point.
Copywrite: You know, yep yep yep. For sure.
TWV: First of all, how did you first get into hip-hop?
Copywrite: Listening or making it?
TWV: First off listening, and then into making it.
Copywrite: You know how when you’re a kid you don’t really have your own musical taste; you just listen to what people in your family listen to and it just turns into that? I want to say in 88’ or 89’ I first heard hip-hop. I was living in Florida and would hear hip-hop on the radio. Like I would hear NWA; Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince made me a certified hip-hop fan. You can’t tell me nothing about Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince. Will Smith is definitely the cat that made me a fan of rap music and made me just overwhelmed with what he was doing musically. He is a really dope emcee, yo. A lot of people overlook that because of the fact that he came out with a bunch of bubblegum songs, but if you listen to like “Parents Just Don’t Understand” and like, “My rhymes have been written, not to be bitten.” Just all the joints that he had
TWV: The whole He’s The DJ & I’m The Rapper album is very good.
Copywrite: That was it. That was the album that made me a huge fan.
TWV: From there, how did you get into wanting to emcee yourself?
Copywrite: It was a total accident. Me and Jakki have been best friends since middle school. So, we used to make skits; we’ve got really silly senses of humor and he had a boombox and we used to make freestyle commercials and stuff, so we would just record skits to make each other laugh and to make ourselves laugh. One time, somebody was just beating on the table, and we started freestyling and it just turned into us recording it, and people in the neighborhood heard it and they said that they liked it. It made us think that we were okay at rapping, and we started writing, and it just kind of took off from there.
TWV: From there, how did your start doing actual releases? Did you have local release and demos?
Copywrite: Yeah, we used to make demos for ourselves, just a few songs. Real straight-up do-it-yourself. Just making it ourselves so we could listen to it and try to show it off to people. Just make raps and see what people in the neighborhood’s response was like.
TWV: How did you hook up with your first twelve-inches which were on Fondle Em’?
Copywrite: We had a manager at the time who was sending our demos out to independent labels. Nelson sent that out, he started mailing out our demo to Fondle Em’; Bomb Records. Actually, funny, but Bomb –I don’t know if you know about that label.
TWV: Yeah, David Paul. I have all of their magazines and everything from back then.
Copywrite: They were supposed to put out RJ’s (RJD2) “Deadringer” but they just decided they didn’t want to.
TWV: Wow, that’s a new one. I’ve never heard that.
Copywrite: It’s pretty crazy. It’s pretty crazy how many people slept on RJ’s first album. Nobody really wanted to mess with me and RJ. It trips me out, a lot of people think that album’s classic, and I think Deadringer’s a pretty good album, but it almost didn’t come out all together, let alone on a label. It was just stuff coming out, and barely coming out, and nobody wanted it to come out and did just not grasp it.
TWV: When you were on Fondle Em’, you had the two twelve-inches you put out and then you ended up on the ABB compilation. How did that come about?
Copywrite: We were just trying to put out records on whatever label we could, and it just ended up he asked us if we wanted to put it out on that label and of course we said, “Yeah.”
TWV: That was probably the strongest song on the compilation (“This Year”) but it seemed like that was the last group work you released before RJD2′s stuff and your solo stuff. What happened between that compilation and you guys going solo?
Copywrite: I don’t know man. Just too much, too many people, too many ideas and just things like that. We just got sick of working as a group, I guess.
TWV: What lead to you winding up on Eastern Conference yourself?
Copywrite: Eastern Conference was interested in me doing solo work. Like, I never ever wanted to be a solo artist; I always just wanted to remain crew and put out music that way. They just expressed interest in wanting to put out a solo album with me and singles and stuff. It just worked out like that.
TWV: What ended up leading you back to Ohio and you doing your own stuff?
Copywrite: Everything was real stagnant; real flimsy man. We were so hungry and eager to put out music that we felt that, well we’re going to keep making more music and more music, so whoever wants to put it out can put it out.
TWV: More recently, you’ve been on Man Bites Dog Records; your new album and last album were on that label. What lead to that relationship?
Copywrite: They were always trying to put out records with me, and I told them early on that I’m a solo artist but I have no desire to put out any solo material. It was just already done and it just kind of worked out like that. I figured, why not? Let’s put out this single and see how this goes and see how we can get this crap out instead of sitting around with all of these old songs.
TWV: On your last album you had a lot more personal songs, things that were similar to “June” which was your first introspective song. What lead to you expressing more personal things instead of just battle raps?
Copywrite: I’ve always been a fan of songs that make people cry. I guess I was just feeling like making more songs like that. It’s very therapeutic for me to write about real life and hard times. It just, naturally, was working out like that. It was helping me get through some of the stress. I’d always see people in the audience when I was performing these songs; it helped me out in the back of my dumb head that I was helping out people with these songs the same was I used to listen to other artists that helped me out.
TWV: On your new album, you have a lot more personal things in terms of faith, and it might be a big departure for a lot of your fans and listeners. What happened between your last album and this album that lead to you preaching more about your faith?
Copywrite: It was way more heavy on my mind, and it just felt good. It felt good to talk about the Lord, and it felt good to not hide what I feel to be truth. It was way heavy on my heart to talk about the Lord, and it felt really good to talk about the living Christ before talking about anything else.
TWV: What has the reception been to how you come across?
Copywrite: It’s been a good reception. Holy mackerel! You’ve got to forgive me, I’m a little (tired). I’m kind of falling asleep while driving and doing this, Matt. So don’t trip, I’m not saying that to get off the phone. I’m just trying to get someplace so I can overdose on some coffee; on some espresso shots.
I don’t know man. I feel like it was a slow transition from talking about my personal life, and talking about things that really did happen, and get it out there. The people have been liking it. They’ve been respecting it, even if it’s not something that they respect in terms of Jesus Christ. It’s been really really dope to hear people just respect and confirm that it helped people out with my problems.
TWV: The album starts off with a bang. A big change for, probably, a lot of listeners from what they probably would expect the album to start off with. But then, there’s also mixed content on the album. You have battle raps and all types of guests, and then you have songs about your faith. How did you mix those two together?
Copywrite: Some of those songs are old, like “Man Made,” I made that for Life and Times. I never ever have a preset (idea), I just write anything. The only thing I’m ever concerned with is if I like the song, and if I feel it’s good, and if I feel it’s going to fit. But, all the reception I’ve been getting is dope and it’s been a little surprising. I feel like all the other songs I’ve been doing in my life, they’ve just been digging it. Even the conceptual songs, they’ve just been digging it. You know, I can ask for nothing more but that.
TWV: Personally, what are your favorite parts about your new album?
Copywrite: I like “Synesthesia,” and I don’t know if a lot of people would know what synesthesia is, but that’s one of my favorites. It’s making me happy that cats’ are vibing out to the songs that I like because I’m a weird, bizarre, offset person. It’s been good going out on a limb trying to make my little art, and they’ve been digging the weird stuff. That’s more encouraging than expected.
TWV: In the early-2000’s you were in the Roc The Mic emcee battle. Did anybody approach you about signing with a major label?
Copywrite: Yeah, I’ve had my ups and downs. Just Blaze wanted to sign me, and my manager at that time, which was Bee High, Jay-Z’s cousin, he was managing J-Dilla. He manages Memphis Bleek and certain, random people, but he was trying to sign me but I wasn’t trying to sign because managers are pretty much a joke unless you have… I don’t know man, there were a lot of people coming at me at that period of my life because they thought I was going to be the new white boy; the new white boy rapper.
There were other labels also that were trying to get me signed but I couldn’t do it. Through the course of my career, if you want to call what I do a career, there’s a lot of people that almost tried to sign and they all fell through. I praise God for that, I’m really happy. You know, getting a major deal can suck. You know, it’s not dope. Even if you want to be rich, it’s not dope; it’s not good for anything.
All the times that the majors came knocking, it was flattering but I didn’t want to roll with it.
TWV: I’ve heard recently that you’re back doing things with the MHz Crew, and you guys are back as a unit and are going to be releasing an album. Is that correct?
Copywrite: Yeah, we never broke up, we just kind of stopped working on music together. We just felt like kids that the babysitter left.
TWV: What’s the plan? Do you guys have an album that you’re going to be releasing?
Copywrite: Yeah, it’s called Megacy. Probably about seven songs or something like that, and it’s about halfway done. We don’t know where it’s going to come out on. Probably about fourteen songs (total).
Where am I going? Where am I going? Hey, hold up. Let me use my GPS for a minute. I hope I’m not going the opposite way. The worst part is I have no idea. Dude, getting lost is the worst thing in the world. I almost just killed myself again, but it’s better I talk to you than not talk, you know?
Side note, side note. I’ve been up all last night with my grandma in the hospital til about 5, 6, 7 in the morning. So people don’t think I’m on drugs, or had some wild party, or none of that crazy stuff that maybe a year ago or two years ago would have been accurate.
God Save The King drops on February 28th on Man Bites Dog Records.
Source: TheWellVersed
