Swinging the lyrical sword of the chosen few
Inspectah Deck takes on his personal ills with no fear. Still, INS has survived
years of label turmoil and has settled in at a new home with Koch Entertainment/In
the Paint Records with new comforts. Here he revels in his past successes and
obstacles and his desire to take on the streets with “The Movement,”
his latest effort. INS engaged in a candid talk about his own happenings, a
lost Tupac verse, Ol’ Dirt McGirt and the Wu-Tang Dynasty.
AllHipHop.com: Lets talk about your new album
The Movement and what you’re trying to do with this effort?
Deck: Just trying to steer the peoples minds
straight a little bit. Everyone is kinda focused on a facade out there. There
a lot of real issues in the world and things going on besides diamonds and cars.
I’m just trying to talk to the people once again. True Wu-Tang form.
AllHipHop: Are you working with Rza on the album
at all, any new producers being introduced in the mix for you?
Deck: No Rza on the album, there’s no disrespect
at all. Its just Rza been in Europe, he been hard to get to. So I got a lot
of dudes that you hear coming up. Ya know Ayatollah from Queens did a lot of
stuff out there, my boy Hots from UMC’s (Phantom of the Beats). They out
there putting their grind in still.
AllHipHop: Do you have any guest appearances
on album at all?
Deck: Nah, not a lot of guest appearances on
there. I got a couple of heads, my boy Streetlife, Killah Sin from Killarmy,
Kool G Rap, Vinia Mojica, just a little roster. A little spices to make the
stew taste good ya know what I mean.
AllHipHop: Can you compare working at Loud Records
back when Uncontrolled Substance (first solo LP 1999) came out to working at
your new home Koch Entertainment/In The Paint?
Deck: I’ll give you the bottom line straight
up, I ain’t even been in Loud, inside their offices, as many times as I
been here at Koch. Right there off the bat that’s a good thing. At least from
what I’m seeing out my eyes these people work. And they stick to what they
do. Its not like you got a street teamer wanting to write you a check. Everybody
knows what they do and can pretty much handle their jobs.
AllHipHop: Lets swing it over to ODB who is now
out of jail and calling himself Dirt McGirt. Can you talk about the situation
there for a moment?
Deck: Right now I’m just happy my brothers
home. Theres a big news story going around that he signed to Roc-A-Fella Records.
How true it is, I can’t verify that, but it sounds like its official. I
been hearing him making appearances and I been hearing other dudes talking for
him. But as far as my brother go, me personally, I just wish he could have got
with his children and got with his mind together first. Before he got with his
music, he got a lot of leeches and parasites on him that know his marketing
ability.
AHH: Is there any tension with him right now
from the Wu because with him joining the Roc it would almost seem he’s
joining a new crew?
AllHipHop: You know, on the ground level, that’s
treason. But on the grown man level, the man is right out of jail and I’m
happy for that. And if he feels he want to go over there and get money then
he’s entitled to do that then I’m gonna support him, I’m gonna
support him in whatever he does. I’m just saying me personally, that would
have been a hard move to make for me. Money being right and all of that, just
an ethical question right there. Its kinda like Mack 10 going to Cash Money,
or Snoop going to No Limit. I respect those brothers because they came out of
the deal on top, starting the labels and all of that. No one knows what Dirty
got planned except Old Dirty.
AllHipHop: Lets take it back a little while.
I remember that track “Show N Prove” from your first album. When it
hit the radio there was really nothing hitting right at the time. I loved the
message behind that track, if you could go into the creation of that track and
it’s unique chorus?
Deck: See my mistake with “Show N Prove”,
well I wouldn’t even say it was a mistake, but it was like the people were
ignorant at that time ya know what I mean. And I tried to put out a message
to uplift people and tell them that the power of God is in you, and stop blaming
the white man or whoever you blaming and get your life together because that
power is in you. That was the essence of that song and ya know it took me to
look at myself and say that message to myself too. Like ya know I can’t
point the finger at Rza, because I don’t have an album out. I had to really
take a good look at myself and say ya know you have the power to do this, show
and prove, you can get up and stand up on your own two feet. I put that song
out in the midst of everyone being in the club, this that and the third, “Show
N Prove” was kinda like preaching on the dance floor. Maybe it wasn’t
the best record to come out first, but I don’t regret nothing I did. I
love that record and people still run up on my in the street everywhere I go
telling me how they liked it. Its a blessing for me, I appreciate it.
AllHipHop: What’s new with the entire Wu-Tang
Clan if you’ve been in contact with anyone lately? What are the plans for
the future?
Deck: Right now you gonna see a couple of heads
in the new Scary Movie 3. Everybody wasn’t able to be there, but I believe
you see like Rza, U-God, Meth, and Raekwon in the Scary Movie 3. Me myself,
I’m writing a movie called The Stereotype. I popped off a new label called
INS Productions. As far as myself I been working on a couple of groups, my boy
Streetlife putting his album out. This album right here (The Movement), its
just a start ya know, if I can wake up people’s brains right now and get
them focused on real music. Theres a lot of good music out there, but I feel
when they hear this album they gonna hear the difference, like wow I didn’t
know there was nothing different out there. He don’t sound like them, the
beats don’t sound like them. Its not bubble gum.
AllHipHop: The Wu audiences are so distinct,
Meth and ODB will always appeal to a broader audience because of their character
and charisma, and a lot of heads that buy their albums will never give you or
Gza a look. It bothers me as a fan but how does that sit with you?
Deck: Its all good to me, I’m the more reserved
type. I’m more of the lieutenant dude. I’ll see you and observe everything,
but each man gets what he’s due. If you go out there and buy a Meth album
over mine, that means you were feeling him more than me. And that means you
either gotta work harder, or just come better. And to me, I’m that type
anyway, it just makes me work harder.
AllHipHop: To shift gears and go back a while
into the past, on the 2pac album, “All Eyez On Me”, I remember your
verses on the song “I Got My Mind Made Up” were erased or something.
Can you talk about that for a bit?
Deck: Rest in peace to 2pac man. We was out in Cali one day with Method Man
and Redman and we had stopped by Daz Dillinger’s crib with him and Kurupt,
and was kicking it with Lady of Rage. And that song had happened to come up,
Daz threw a beat on, and Meth started coming with the chorus. So it just happened
at the spur of the moment , like bam we gonna do it like that. And when I came
on, I came on at the end of the track, and the track had gone off on me and
I kept rhyming acapella, and we had kept that version for Daz’s album.
But I guess 2pac came in when he had signed to Death Row he had bought the song
off of Daz and he had cut a couple of verses off. I think me, Rage, and might
have even cut off Daz’s verse on (he did). 2pac made that happen though,
because he bought the song and they edited it up.
AllHipHop: Speaking of Pac and Tha Row, any plans
to work with anyone in general from the West Coast?
Deck: I got a lot of love on the West Coast.
I got a lot of heads that I could easily work with such as Xzibit, Ras Kass,
and the whole Golden State Warrior crew, Jayo Felony I just ran into last week.
Theres a lot of guys out there that been dying and willing to work with us.
In the future you’ll see. Ya know this album is just me getting on my feet
and opening the ears. So next album guarantee you’ll see more collaborations.
AllHipHop: With anything you’ve ever wrote,
with Wu Tang or solo, what’s your favorite verse of all time?
Deck: I got a lot of favorite verses. If you
want one that sums up of the attitude of this album, the joint called Vendetta,
a basic lashing out to the industry.
AllHipHop: Of all the songs ever written, from
Rakim to EPMD, what’s your favorite verse?
Deck: My favorite verse of all time now has to
go to Rakim “My Melody.” That and Kool G Rap “Roads to Riches.”
As far as nowadays the dudes that strikes me good all the time lately has been
Nas. I mean its just what he stands for, I can cosign that.
AllHipHop: You have any promotional tours coming
up for the new album?
Deck: Yah, we got a promotional tour coming up
with Streetlife. Once we get that thing (The Movement) popping off around end
of May, early June.
AllHipHop: One last question, that new movie
Spiderman that came out last year, should they have called you for the lead
role in it?
Deck: They shoulda called me kid! At least for
the soundtrack. Hopefully I’ll get a song on the next one or something.
AllHipHop: Any last subjects you want to get
out to the public or any comments you want to make out there?
Deck: Well, this is basically my slogan right
now. The power’s with the people. This is the movement. Its with the people.
Telling the people if you’re tired, or you ya’ll don’t like the
way things are being done. The change comes with you. If you support good music,
I mean there’s no way in hell that Talib Kweli didn’t sell 3 or 4 million
records by now. The power is with the people. If ya’ll in the streets and
buy and support this music then its up to ya’ll. Its not the corporations
or the engines behind it anymore. I’m trying to snap people out of that
mentality. The corporations are just trying to feed you what you want to eat
it. If you don’t want to eat it, then they stuck with a plate.
