Most people know
Randy "Macho Man" Savage from his legendary bouts in the professional
wrestling arena. Most don’t know that the man who took wrestling to the mainstream,
hopes to do the same with his debut hip-hop album, Be A Man.
The album drops
October 7th on Big 3 Records. Savage convincingly does the hip-hop thing with
the best of them and even throws a diss record at his wrestling enemy, Hulk
Hogan on the album. Peep Macho’s game.
AllHipHop.com:
People are definitely eager to hear what you have to say about you actually
becoming a rapper. I heard some of the album and it sounds like your serious
about it, is that true?
MM: I’m serious
about the project, I’m having fun at the same time though. I’m openly telling
everybody that. I’m just trying to entertain my wrestling fans and bring some
crossover for people to the hip hop genre. I got thirteen songs on the album.
Me and my crew the rascals, have been doing this since November and we’re going
to definitely come out with a couple albums. We are working on those right now
as we speak.
AllHipHop.com:
So, what got you going with the thought of a rap album?
MM: Because I’ve
been a fan of it, I’ve listened to music all my life. Being a fan of LL Cool
J, Run DMC, Eminem and The Beastie Boys, you know.
AllHipHop.com:
So how difficult was it for you to rap?
MM: Well in the
beginning it was different, but the guys over here were like "just keep
at it like everything else, it will come" and that’s what happened. I had
such a love for it that it started to come natural.
AllHipHop.com:
So what’s the deal with you insulting Hulk Hogan?
MM: That’s the
number one question that people ask. They want to know if that’s scripted because
in our history we’ve been friends on and off the air. It’s a for real deal.
A lot of the time in wrestling, we had feuds on the air. We’ve had them off
the air too, but this one here is a situation where he went to the airwaves
and started insulting me with the media, instead of calling me out like a man.
So like two years ago I challenged him. I gave him two weeks to except right
before Christmas. All the money would go to the St. Petersburg children’s hospital
in a neighborhood where we live and I felt like it didn’t matter if he won or
I won, the kids would win. That way we could settle it man to man in the ring.
I gave him a week to except the challenge otherwise I would donate 10 thousand
dollars to the children’s hospital, which was a good present but not like a
pay-per-view would have done. A pay-per-view would have been crazy with all
the merchandise and all that. So he chose not to do it. It’s the only diss song.
The other twelve are a variety of songs, club songs even a love song, one song
is dedicated to me and Hogan’s situation where I really box with him lyrically.
AllHipHop.com:
Are you being hated on in the industry?
MM: Not really,
I mean I’ve been away from there for a little bit, and Hogan was just there
and he just left, so its kind of like we both freelanced. Like last time I caught
up with him, there was nothing stopping him from taking the challenge. We’re
both free agents and we both could agree to wrestle at Wrestlemania 20.
AllHipHop.com:
Some of the people on AllHipHop wanted to ask you some questions. They seem
to have more knowledge of wrestling than me. A lot of people want to know who’s
on the album and who you worked with.
MM: One of my songs
was with DJ Clue, a couple of the artists on Big 3 and we also have Primary
Colors.
AllHipHop.com:
What about the actual process of writing the rhymes. Did you do any of that?
MM: I did a little
bit on the Hogan song! We all threw in a couple of good ideas, it was just a
mixture. They call themselves collectively the Rascals but it’s a group with
about five different guys.
AllHipHop.com:
What are the song concepts and stuff? I hear one is a love song and then there’s
one dedicated to a wrestler that died.
MM: Mr. Perfect,
he was a very close friend of mine. We called him Mr. Perfect in the WWF and
I just expressed what had happened and paid tribute to him for his family for
the kids.
AllHipHop.com:
What are your views on wrestling right now? It changed a lot since I was growing
up it seems more like a drama and plot oriented thing.
MM: It’s always
been that way but a lot of the fans out there are saying its even more. I think
Wrestlemania 20, I’m open for it, Macho Man and Hogan. Bring the hip-hop into
it, it could be the kind of platform for 20, kind of like Def Jam Vendetta what
there doing with the rappers, maybe that could be a little bit of a spring board
and stir up some other interests.
AllHipHop.com:
What’s a stage show like for you?
MM: It’s great,
we just did one called Payback for Big 3, and the whole town turned out! We
had fights in the parking lot and everything like that, we actually made a mistake
with the venue we picked but we turned out the town and it was crazy.
AllHipHop.com:
I heard you had a problem with hecklers, do you think that will be a problem
with Hulk Hogan fans?
MM: I think it’s
great I love it; I swear most of them changed from haters to lovers right in
the middle of the song. They took off Hulk shirts and put on Macho Man shirts.
AllHipHop.com:
So how are you going to promote the album? Are you going to do videos or focus
on the wrestling crowd?
MM: We just made
a commercial yesterday, which was played sort of like a video. They got a promotional
tour lined up but I’m just concentrating on the music thing right now. It’s
fun. The rush I get with The Rascals was just like being on Wrestlemania.
