Hailing from Reading, PA—the NY metro area's outlet shopping center—and honing one's skills in Minneapolis aren't the usual street credits a new rapper wants to stamp and wave proudly on a banner. Golden couldn't care less.

With rhymes of deft intelligence and production that spans and broadens genres, Golden, arrives confidently on the hip-hop scene with his debut album, Peddling Medicine.

While the album's title is a euphemism for selling crack, Golden's Peddling Medicine, is exactly what the doctor ordered to revive the industry from its current cardiac arrest with a much needed dose of originality, consciousness, and diversity.

Golden spoke with Sixshot about curing the hip-hop scene, collaborating with pop star Fergie, how he deals with criticism from white hip-hop fans, his response when Naughty by Nature proposed that he be the "clean Eminem," hip-hop's obsession with the thug image, and his plans for the future.

I read that your album title is a play on how hip-hop often talks about the crack game. So what ailments does your "medicine" aim to cure?

In general, the mundane copycat nature of what's going on in commercial music right now—commerciali sm in general. I feel like my music blends underground, introspection, and real s*** with the accessibility of beats and hooks. It's not so dense that cats can't really grab on to it.

You worked with Fergie on the track "Elevator Music" from the album. How was that experience?

It was great. She's great. I met her the first day that she performed live with the [Black Eyed] Peas. I think it was Coachella 2004 or something like that. She was mad cool, no ego, no nothing, and she's like one of the biggest pop stars on the planet. She listened to the track on the tour bus when we were touring together and she started singing along with it. It made me feel real good that she thought enough of what I do to wanna bless me with her vocals. I think a lot of people don't give her enough credit for what she does and the kind of voice that she has.

The album has a lot of different influences from reggae to rock. Is that eclecticism conscious or did it evolve naturally?

It naturally evolved that way. I have so many more songs than what is on the album. So while it was natural I could have consciously chosen to take all the pop and rock stuff off and just make this a hip-hop record. I feel like I consciously made the choice of putting a little bit of everything that I do on this record for better or for worse. It's hard to categorize what I do and at the same time that can be used against you.

I look at albums like Wyclef [Jean's] The Carnival which is a real eclectic record and it works. So I feel like on some level this record works really well even though it's all over the place. There's still that thread that kind of ties it all together and there's nothing that's so far out there that it doesn't make sense on the record. I don't know if I'll do that for my next record. I think I might be even more bizarre. What's out there is gonna be way out there, and what's in there is gonna be extra hip-hop.

You've taken a very unique approach to releasing the album. You released it digitally two-fold and the single with Fergie was free on peer-to-peer networks. Yet some people still burned your music without purchasing it. So monetarily has this approach worked for you as an independent artist?

Monetarily, I would say no. At the same time I don't know how much it hurt. The fact is people don't buy music unless you got millions of dollars behind you or some advertising scheme. So at this point I'd rather have my music out there and have people enjoying what I do. I think it helps because it puts my music out there to millions of people who may not have heard it.

On the track, "It Ain't Me", from the album you state that you're not Eminem, Vanilla Ice, Bubba Sparxx, or Aesop Rock. With these lines it seems like you're trying to present more options for a commercially successful white rapper and define yourself as the anti-Eminem or anti-Vanilla Ice. Are those your intentions?

I would say yes and no. People immediately gravitate to not what I do or how I do it, but what I look like. So I wanted to address that issue right off the bat in a light hearted way. I don't think there's any confusion with what I do with Eminem or Vanilla Ice once you get into the heart of the music. They all do what they do for better or worse and how they do it, and that's great. I feel like I take a bit of a different approach. As far as being the anti-Eminem—I wouldn't call it that either.

In 2001 I got on-stage and free-styled. Treach of Naughty by Nature came backstage and was like, "Yo, we need this kid on the next record," and DJ Kay Gee had got in contact with me a couple of times. He posed the question to me point blank like, "Yo, we want you to be the clean Eminem." I was like, "No, I don't really feel that. I want to be me." So I feel like that option has been presented to me by what people think but it's not necessarily what I do.

I also read in an interview that a lot of white people have criticized you and said that you should do white music. Has coming up in the hip-hop world and hearing those criticisms from white people created issues of identity for you as a rapper or as a white male?

No. Truthfully I feel like the white kids that criticize me don't know what they're talking about. Some people say that I need to be more pop, some people say I'm too pop and need to be more hip-hop, and everyone has their opinion. They take their own baggage and then try to throw it at me like that's what I was trying to do. I guess it all boils down to; it's not the meaning that the artist intends that's really important, it's what you take from it. I can't really dictate what people are gonna take from my music.

In an interview you stated that hip-hop is being heavily appropriated by white kids. Do you see a danger in this consumption by mostly white suburban kids of a predominantly black gangsta thug image which is often just a fantasy?

I love talking about this rather than just the regular keep it upbeat sell yourself bulls***! To me it's basically white corporations taking a black art form, putting a spin on it, and setting up a machine to sell this image of a scary black male like they've done throughout history in America. They're selling it to white kids in the 'burbs.

Unfortunately a lot of these white kids don't really have any other images of black America or Latino America to counteract what's being fed to them on the TV. It also reinforces what kids in the hood and underprivileged areas think—like this is all we can aspire to be and to me that's ridiculous.So you don't have the balance anymore.

You don't have Dead Prez getting played on the radio; you don't have your Public Enemy's getting as much play as your N.W.A.'s. Back in the day you had your Kid'N'Play's, you had your Fresh Prince, you had N.W.A.—everything getting as much play on rap radio because rap radio wasn't a commercial business. It was black owned radio that cared about the community. Now it has nothing to do with the community. It has to do with large corporations saying, "We're not in the community, we want to turn a buck, and the easiest way to do that is to market this image to these white kids who are starved for this gansgetrism."

What do you hope to accomplish in your career?

Generally, I hope to sell a bunch of records, tour the world, spread what I have to say, and connect with people on a personal level. That's why I do it. So if I can continue to do that, make a living off that, and provide for my family and friends and travel the world—that's where I would like to be at in terms of modest aspirations. In terms of some grand thing—I would love to have my hands in a whole bunch of things. I want to be financially secure enough off of music where I can start a non-profit urban organization that caters to underprivileged youth. Right now I'm just so focused on this record and trying to get out there and push this record. I want to start these small little fires throughout the country and see if I can fan them a little bit to where we can make it spread a little bit and grow.

You're Gonna Love me because…

Your little sister thinks I'm cute!

For more information on Golden please visit:
www.peddlingmedicine.com