First introduced as a part of the Diplomats with a tremendous freestyle battle rep, 40 Cal was almost a hidden secret for a while. But for the past two years, the Harlem rapper has gradually grown out of the long shadow cast by his multi-talented Dipset crew, sharpening his own versatility by moving beyond battle rhymes.Fresh off the release of last year’s, Broken Safety 2 and poised to drop Mooga on August 5th, 40 Cal speaks on his transition to becoming a full-fledged artist. The high caliber rhyme deliver tackling the hot questions that anyone affiliated with Dipset has been prompted to answer about the status of the group and if another group album can be expected. Lock and load. AllHipHop.com: From the feedback from Broken Safety 2 do you feel that killed any doubt people from people who may have only labeled you as a mixtape or battle rapper?40 Cal: Yeah, I’m just letting people know periodically that I does this man. I don’t know of any other mixtape battle rapper you may say that really put out projects and stuff like I look at y’all Web site, AllHipHop, all the time and various other Web sites and I see comments and little interviews they do and they all talkin’ the same thing; they complain they’re getting mistreated, they project is not getting handled the right way. I’m not a complainer I’m one of them dudes that’s just gonna do me regardless whatever the situation and the fans can see that in my work so I’m happy with the turn out with Broken Safety 2.AllHipHop.com: With Mooga that’s almost less than a year between the two albums so what would you say is the main difference. I heard that you reached out to some MySpace producers is that true?40 Cal: Oh yeah exactly, exactly. On this one I just wanted to give a lot of people that reached out to me a shot. Everyday literally like 10 new producers they send me beats and you know I just wanted to pick the hottest ones and show the general public that I really think the best talent is unsigned. I want to let people know there’s some real hungry people out there and they’re gonna see from the turn out that album and the whole production it’s like one of my best pieces of work. AllHipHop.com: Would you say the new album is a little more focused than Broken Safety 2 considering that it started out as a mixtape and you polished it up to be a full album?40 Cal: Yeah, this one I can say that because it just shows more growth. Like Broken Safety 2 in my eyes is a classic and a lot of people that hear it for the first time tell me that a lot of new fans or whatever the case may be but this one is just like I know it’s what I call I got a word called play me proof. You can hear this whole album and you cannot tell me it’s not hot unless you just a hater or maybe my music is not for you but I touch all genres on this album.AllHipHop.com: Have you caught any flack from anyone not used to hearing the different sounds in the music you’re making now?40 Cal: Sometimes I lose sometimes on a comment, they’ll post little songs on these little Web sites and I read the comments from time to time, I just like to hear what the people saying, some people may not agree with it, but little do they know those are samples just to test the waters.If this was the NBA I just wanna be a dude that I can prove that I can play every position from to one guard to the forward, center and then if I want to I can take the uniform off and play coach. I just wanna be the all around best MC. I know Lil Wayne call himself the best MC but I obviously think I’m better and people that know me agree. A person that don’t know me would obviously not agree they’d be like are you buggin’, you know how it is. I’m a rebel in this game. I hope n****s don’t find out too late I’m one of them dudes, I am legend, [laughs].AllHipHop.com: As far as the whole Dipset controversy you’ve been pretty vocal about it at times maintaining it’s still gonna carry on as far as Dipset not leaving. 40 Cal: The way we stand on this whole Dipset thing is we all at the same barbeque, we just sitting at different tables. We all eating on the same grill, but we all just sitting at different tables right now, you know what I’m saying? That’s the best way to compare it because we all scream Dipset but it’s not as together as it used to be, that’s the obvious. I can’t even sit here and talk like that ain’t the obvious, but it’s just regular family business and time heals things but at the same time it is a movement and we’re all gonna move.AllHipHop.com: I think it was February or March when the track leaked, “Dipset is Ova” did anyone out of the crew approach you about that?40 Cal: Oh yeah, yeah. The funny thing about that, that song started out to be an intro to Mooga and what happened with that song was I sent Bezel the Pro Tools session I asked him what to do on that end. He kinda in my eyes… I didn’t agree when he took his verse but you know he has his own opinion but long story short I had the song and somehow it got leaked. I’m not saying Bezel did it or nothing like that but I’m just saying it got leaked. People thought it was a publicity stunt if that was the case I would do it right now before the album, you dig? I even spoke to the big homie and had to tell him, “’Cam like, yo you’re doing me dirty saying I’m saying Dipset’s over ,“ but at the end of the day he know how this game is and how people operate so he just was like he ain’t really stress it. After they seen my views [Dipset] I make it make sense I wasn’t copping no pleas about the situation, I made the track but the name of the track was not called “Dipset is Ova”, it was called, “A Dipset Letter”.AllHipHop.com: You explained everybody’s still doing their own thing is there anything upcoming collectively?40 Cal: Duke Da God is one my close friends and he’s the only one that can really get the whole crew together on a whole back to five compilation type of album. I’m quite curious just like y’all, just like everybody else but it’s guaranteed that you’re gonna see another Diplomat project. Guaranteed. AllHipHop.com: I know there’s been a lot of jumping around with you and labels where do you stand now?40 Cal: ‘Cause I do my deals like that I never found a major label or somebody I can just stick with and do like a three album, five album deal with because I just have a lot of issues with how they’re promoting and marketing the record so I gotta get ill lawyers and work off one off deals.AllHipHop.com: You got anything else in the works we can expect?40 Cal: I got a movie coming out called Wonder Wall starring my dude from The Wire, we know him as Bodie [J.D. Williams], got a part in that. That’s coming out in another month or so and you know I’m always working out on new projects working on Broken Safety 3 – might drop that early next year.
