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this is an interview for william of dis.eased wrekkids zine which will be coming out soon.
What inspired you to start using music to express yourself?
My parents always played music around me for as long as I can remember. The first time I heard Bob Marley and David Bowie was when I was a baby. By the time I was six, hip hop was my music of choice though. I was probably a super fan for a good ten years before I started to make music myself. I played bass for awhile and sang in some grindcore bands, then at 18, I started rapping. I was really into hip hop, I just never believed that I could be a rapper until'l I seriously tried. I would make rap tapes in 3rd grade but nothing serious. I remember doing a song with my friend John Q Publik called "Walk In The Woods." Pretty corny stuff.
By the time this interview is published you will have an album released on DIY Bandits, what can you tell us about it?
The album is called Trapped Under an Ohio Sky. It's 13 tracks and has Ceschi, K-The-I???, Geneva B, Oblio of the Dreadnots, etc lending some vocals. The production comes from Chrismick, Optiks, Jordan Olivo and a few others. I'm pretty happy with the end result. The theme of the album is my feelings of isolation from humanity. It has a lot of social commentary, some subtle, some not. I have often tried to get away from Ohio but find myself coming back more than I'd like to. For me, it's just a really depressing, cloudy place with a lot of people who like to complain about things but refuse to do anything to make a change for the better.
Do you have any projects with other people, or other people you'd like to work with?
Most of my projects are solo but with the help of my friends. As far as people I'd like to work with, wow, this could be a long list. Jello Biafra, Existereo, Her Space Holiday, Ghostface Killah, Rza, MF Doom, Pete Rock, El-P, Nas, Scientist, Damian Marley, Joanna Newsom, Portishead, Chuck D, Ice-T, Saul Williams...I could go on and on.
Are you a vegetarian/vegan? If so what factors led you to be so?
I have been a vegetarian for about 6 and a half years. I never even questioned eating meat 'til I heard the passionate and intelligent lyrics of the punk band, Propagandhi. That got me thinking but I was still stuck eating General Tso's chicken and hamburgers on the regular. Then, one day I woke up and decided that eating meat was fucked up and not part of the lifestyle that I wanted to lead. It wasn't just the fact of killing animals; it was just the cruelty factor of factory farms.The longer I was vegetarian, the more educated I became about it. Factory farms destroy the environment and stink up towns; it's just a really disgusting business. I don't judge people for eating meat though; I think "food politics" is way bigger than choosing whether to eat meat and dairy or not. Where do your bananas come from? What's in the candy bar you eat? Where is your food coming from, ya know? It takes these huge trucks and ships to get food to the grocery stores, so that contributes to fucking up the environment even more. People growing food are being paid slave wages so to be self righteous and abstain from eating meat but then to go and eat food grown by workers that are paid pennies is just bullshit. People do what they can but don't go around pointing your finger at the world without looking at yourself. It's really complicated though. Most people can't afford fancy organic food. Healthy food can be expensive sometimes. It's as if the corporations are trying to kill people on purpose. I think ideally,local food is the way to go. Supporting local small time farmers is a start. Organic farming is something I am pretty interested in and would like to pursue in the future.
In a previous interview you did for another zine I read that you got into it with some "juggalos" at a show you played, I'd really like to hear more on this story. Haha
I was given the opportunity to open up for one of my favorite hip hop groups of all time, The Coup. The other opening band whose name I won't mention were the ones I had the
confrontation with. First off, I don't know why the venue put them on the bill. They were juggalo, assholes. They brought a cd to rhyme to that lyrics on it and top of that, the cd skipped. They played, then another group went on, and then it was my turn. I came out with my American flag cape on and did America:Fuck Yeah and then busted into a pretty political spoken word piece. They didn't like what I had to say and came up to the stage and said to me "do you like black girls." It was just really weird as if they were trying to provoke me and I ignored their presence. They then asked me to battle them and tried to heckle me. At this point, I was pretty pissed off and just trying to rock a set as hard as I could. I kept taunting them and rapping in their faces, waving my middle finger at them and what not. They then called me a faggot and I stopped the set right then and there to settle the dispute and I thought for sure we were fighting. I said on the mic, these dudes don't know what the fuck hip hop is all about. They come to a political hip hop show and call people faggots. Someone then yelled homophobes leave" and we started to chant that. Then they tried to rush the stage and security kicked them out. Then they tried to get back in and blamed me for "being disrespectful to America". I guess they were in the military. It's just fucking stupid though. I don't go telling them to not believe what they believe in but they want to get all up in my shit. In the end, they looked like assholes and were arrested, fighting each other outside. After the show, they put me up on their website and threatened to kill me and come to my shows and throw bricks at my face. Idle threats. It was cool though, after the set, a bunch of random people told me that had my back if it was about to turn into a Coup fans vs. Juggalos brawl. Oh, and for those that don't know, Juggalo =Insane Clown's cult following.
If you sold out to a major label, what products do you think they might use you and your art to sell after you died?
If I did sign to a major label, it wouldn't be selling out. I would have to have a serious reason. I remember the band Code 13 had a song, "Rage Against the Mainstream" which I believe dissed on Rage Against The Machine for being on a major label but Rage were serious political activists and made alot of people politicized. Yeah, some racist frat boy types listen to Rage, and that does suck but I wouldn't diss on them for it. It's just funny because some punk bands are only reaching the same crowd day in and day out, mostly white youth who alot of times come from middle to upper class backgrounds yet they are the most self righteous people out there while Rage Against The Machine uses elements of different kinds of music to touch all over the radar and capture the attention of tons of different kinds of people. I don't mean to rant or diss punk rock, I love punk rock but people seriously need a reality check sometimes. Anyways, back to the original question. They would probably use my music in Nike ads just to spite me!
Nike, haha, that's funny on a few levels. Rage Against the Machine is a good example to bring up of musicians being effective through the "mainstream" markets. I don't
know if I imagined this or not, but I could swear I remember hearing something about Zach helping fund the Zapatista rebels in Mexico with money he made through the
band, do you know anything about that? Also, besides Rage, Public Enemy, and the Beastie Boys, what other musicians do you think have made an impact through the "mainstream" on the politics/activism level?
I'm not sure if Zach of Rage Against The Machine did that but it wouldn't surprise me.
To answer about mainstream artists having a political impact, some of the Motown artists, Marvin Gaye, The Temptations, etc. They had protest songs that will forever reflect the times. I also remember hearing that Chubawamba let some politician use their song and donated the proceeds to the Anarchist Black Cross, that's pretty funny if it's true. I think it is important for people to realize what they are getting into before going mainstream though. It sucks when conscious bands play expensive Clear Channel concerts when Clear Channel does not hide their pro-right, pro-censorship ideas.
Do you think the CrimeThinc mode of thinking, that if all these groups got together and created their own system that there would not be a need for the "mainstream", is plausible?
I have no idea. I guess only the future will tell.
I've seen some labels/artists who believe that the system can be fought from within, what are your thoughts on that?
If you mean the music industry, it seems like a dirty game but looking at the broader spectrum, I stand firmly behind the notion that the government cannot be fought from the inside. Derrick Jensen said in one of his books that if he could fight the system from the inside, he would, but it just doesn't work. I think he hit that dead on. It's bigger than government though, it's a whole way of life. With that said, I do believe economic inequalities are responsible for many problems in this country. The police target poor people. The CIA put crack on the streets. Up until recent times, black people were being hung from trees, Japanese people were put in camps. America waited to enter World War 2 'til millions had already died. It's a small group of people responsible for fucking up in whole entire world. The government created AIDS, people can look into that if they don't believe it. Why would I want to work with them? It's all a big illusion though. This world seriously lacks compassion and love in every corner of the world, not just America. It thrives on violence and the people at the top of the food chain love that.
What else do you do besides make music?
Right now I'm trying to put as much energy as I can into making this hip hop thing take me to where I need to go. The world will be drastically changing soon and hip hop is only a part of what I am interested in. I really want to abandon my current way of life and start (or join) some sort of community or collective that concentrates on the arts and just helps make the world be a better place in many different ways. I have been involved in political activism in the past, especially with Anti-Racist-Action and Cop Watch and would like to see those sorts of things continue to go on and get back involved in some way but what I am interested in is bigger than hip hop and bigger than politics. I want to see life transformed into something new and more in touch with the earth and the natural flow of things.
Do you think communes/anarchy could ever work on a large scale?
To me, anarchism is principles that I live by. I don't strive for some utopia, living in the now is more important, and while I do believe in revolution, the world is changing rapidly. Anarchism is also a very decentralized thing. I would never want to force people to live in communes or collective societies but these are things that I think are good ideas. I do however believe that the workers should have complete control over the work place. With that said, much of the work that people do in the current society we live in is completely useless. Jobs that pollute and destroy the land and ruin the rivers, soil, air, etc, should not exist no matter what.
Do you travel much? Where have you been? What places have affected you?
I love to travel, see the world and meet new people. It's good to know what's going on outside of your little bubble. I have been all over the U.S but still need to see a few more states. I have also been to Mexico, Canada, and Israel. I wanted to go to the West Bank while in Israel but circumstances prevented that, unfortunately. I'd pretty much like to go everywhere. Time on earth is limited and could end for anyone and everyone at any moment.
The place that has affected me the most is probably New Orleans. I spent a few months down their last Summer. The government's response to Katrina was fucked up but not surprising. It was cool to see grassroots efforts to help the city although things will never be the same. The scary thing is, more natural disasters are going to happen and I don't know how natural they really are when they have a lot to do with the effect that humans have on the environment and climate.
8:44 AM
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