So maybe you’re wondering what an "underground" rapper like myself is thinking when he makes a "gangster" song like "Handle That"?

Well, first of all, I don’t like to label myself...I’m a musician, and I make whatever music I’m inspired to create. Hip-hop tends to put too many limits on itself and its culture...these people can do this, those people shouldn’t do that. Whatever. When God gives you music, you make it.

Second, maybe you’re one of those people who only listens to old Wake Up Show tapes from ’95, or who thinks that if a song is on the radio it’s automatically garbage, or some such nonsense. Well, I like all kinds of music, and my only criteria for liking something is whether it’s a good song or not. So I happen to like a bunch of today’s synth-heavy, radio-friendly rap music, and as an artist it only makes sense to respond to the artistic climate around you. Since I live in the real world and not in a cave filled with old Gang Starr vinyl, I feel like it’s still valid for me to make a song like "Handle That"...

...especially because, third (are you still counting with me?), "Handle That" is a parody. Do we all know what that means? It means I took the conventions that today’s radio rap is based on and tried to find a way to comment on them critically while still working within the confines of that particular style. Which is to say, the song may sound "gangster", but if you really listen to the lyrics (a lot to ask, I know), you’ll find me talking about the same old shit I hit up on all my songs. All that’s different is the style and presentation. Is it wrong to make a song people might enjoy "in the clubs"? What if you’re subverting the message they’re normally fed and giving them a little something to think about instead? I know it doesn’t sound like that dusty old People Under The Stairs 12-inch you love so much, but give it a chance.

You know, there’s a whole contingent of hip-hop fans who think we should all be trying to recapture that mid-90’s Golden Age sound with its sample-based beats and boom-bap wordplay. Lord knows that’s what I grew up on, and that’s also what you’ll mostly find on my new album. But music (and culture, and life) move inexorably forward, and if our music is to maintain its relevance (and hip-hop was always rooted in relevance) we have to move with it. How can we bring those past values into the future? ’Cuz that’s where we’re headed. I hope to see you there. Can you handle that?

Bumping Big Daddy Kane in my flying car,
Grip