Akinyele: Found Pt. 2

AllHipHop: Eastern Conference represents for the past with Tame-One and RA the Rugged Man. How’d they approach you to actually put this record out? Akinyele: J-Zone put me up on them. He said they were a good label. At the same token, I knew [DJ Mighty-Mi] from a while ago. They were the only label […]

AllHipHop: Eastern Conference represents for the past with Tame-One and RA the

Rugged Man. How’d they approach you to actually put this record out?

Akinyele: J-Zone put me up on them. He said they

were a good label. At the same token, I knew [DJ Mighty-Mi] from a while ago.

They were the only label who could understand what Akinyele once was. At first

I was gonna do it with another label called Day By Day, but at the last minute,

these guys they get scared. I wanted to do it on the independent side. I had

to give this album to someone who knows Hip-Hop. If I didn’t, they wouldn’t

know how to work it. This isn’t an album that’s gonna sell two million albums

off the gate. But this album is a guaranteed album that we will make a dent

in Rap history. Like, "Wow, and he came back with another V##### Diner

classic." This album is called, Music Killz. The reason I [chose

that], is when I listen to these old songs, they’re timeless. When you hear

it, you won’t know. I hear a lot of voices in the record from people who were

in the studio with me from around that time. And the sad thing is, me and a

lot of those people don’t have relationships no more. That’s because the music

killed the relationship. f*ck crack, music kills. You’ll die from music physically,

mentally, or emotionally. Example – Dianna Ross was a Supreme. But she always

tries to live being the person she once was. That kills a star emotionally and

mentally. Or you go out like Biggie and Pac and the music kills you physically

and literally. When Elvis was older, nobody was giving a f*ck about Elvis. Luckily

he died and that kept his legacy alive. If If Q-Tip would have died years ago,

he would have gone out as the Abstract Prince. But now, it’s killing him that

the crowd is not feeling him anymore as much as they once was. Like the Jungle

Brothers. If Tupac and Biggie was alive, they might not have been as popular

as they are now. Look at Jay-Z. As high as he is, he’s still fizzling out. It’s

in with the new right now. I don’t think Jay is retiring because he’s tired.

I think he’s retiring because you’ve got the new 50 Cent’s and new mothaf*ckas

getting a whole lot of notoriety, and he’s not number one no more. This album

takes me back to the Rob Swift days, the Large Professor days, the Barbeque

days, when me and Nas would take the train just hoping that people would actually

feel what we did. It was just for the happiness, then all that joy is gone.

Music killed it.

AllHipHop: Speaking of Large Professor and Rob

Swift, is there still that family bond?

Akinyele: Me and Large Professor talk. Me and

Rob Swift talk. Me and Dr. Butcher talk. We’re all pretty great friends. What

it was when we first started, we were young kids having fun, making music, and

all of us were the best at what we were doing. When we were doing albums, we

didn’t know if we were the sh*t, or it was great, when we were doing albums,

it was fun making it. I’m in the studio watching Large Professor make Breaking

Atoms. We didn’t know it was gonna be a Hip-Hop classic. We went on tour

with Large Professor. I remember, me and Nas, our per-diem was ten dollars a

day. That was the world to us! To this day, me and Nas, we’re very close friends.

I listen to the guys making this sh*t now, I like it. I don’t think it’s creative.

But I like it. Yeah, I can say why the people like this sh*t. It’s nothing like

when you hear "Ante Up" that makes you [shiver].

AllHipHop: A couple weeks ago, I write an editorial

about collaborations. I cited "Live at the BBQ" as one of the last

good ones. I know even recently you did a collaboration with Noreaga. In your

opinion, what happened to the lost art of collaboration?

Akinyele: I don’t really do collaborations with

no one, really. Only reason I did one with Noreaga ’cause I had him growing

up. Like I actually kinda damn near put him on. I used to have him and Capone

in my van taking ’em from town to town. Noreaga was a younger guy. We both came

out of Queens. I knew Nore when he was ten. A lot of people call me all over

the world for collaborations, but I don’t even touch it. Because it’s not genuine.

They like, "Drop sixteen and a hook, then eight and a hook." No, we

gonna do it til’ it’s right. When we did, "Live At the BBQ", it was

people just rhyming from their soul. Go til’ you tired. Nowadays it’s funny

because back then you’d only do collaborations with people you knew and was

on your caliber – and took the music as serious as you did. That’s what made

it a friendship. Today the collabo’s are based on status. The money’s so different

now.

AllHipHop: definitely.

Akinyele: You look at mothaf*ckin’ Melle-Mel,

Kurtis Blow, and all these mothaf*ckas right now, and it’s like, no one gives

a f*ck about them. My whole thing right now is I want to start a damn near Hip-Hop

Union. We’ll start a union to the old rockers where everybody gives some money

back off what they make. And if you don’t donate at least ten percent of your

budget, Ak is coming after you. Start the revolution for a cause. Do I feel

that I’m better than any f*ckin’ rapper out there? f*ck yeah! Do I feel like

I can do metaphors around they ass all day? Yeah.

AllHipHop: "Save that broke sh*t for an

orthopedic cast."

Akinyele: Exactly! That was my forte. When I

watch Fabulous and Jadakiss do metaphors, it’s like, "Ha Ha. I like it.

That’s cute." I listen to it, and I then I want to start a union right

now almost. Let’s give back. If you don’t, I’ll come and shut you down.

AllHipHop: Speaking of the metaphorics, you got

"Panic, like b*tches that Eazy-E done f*cked" on the new one. Ouch,

Ak! Do you have a career favorite?

Akinyele: I would say in "Dear Diary",

back in 1992, I was like, "I’m doper than heroin, so just take my name

in vein." Everyday you come up with a different one.

AllHipHop: I got into a debate recently over

who was better, you or Finesse.

Akinyele: I’ll tell you that, straight up. I’ll

give it to Lord Finesse, hands down. Just ‘cuz with him. I used to listen to

him hard, and grew up with him rocking it. Until today, he’s one of my best

friends. Me and him, we used to just call each other up. Me and Finesse used

to run around together and I don’t care who you was. If you were the biggest

artist, we would come to your show, and we would just rock for free, at your

show, just to shut you down. Like for instance, he’d call up and say, "Yo

Ak, I saw MC blah blah, and he gave me a pound, and I didn’t like how he gave

me a pound. Like he was better than me." And we’ll find where he’s performing

at and we’ll go to the promoter and be like, "We just want to rock an accapella

for ten minutes." The guy would have to deal with it and come on.

AllHipHop: Do you think V##### Diner will

ever be repressed?

Akinyele: I don’t know. The one thing I want

to say is when they took that album off the shelves, it was because [of], at

the time, Ted Fields and Jimmy Iovine. I had a song called "Break a b*tch

Neck" with me and Kool G Rap [which is available on Music Killz],

It didn’t make it back then. They didn’t like the song called, "I Love

Hoes" [either]. I got into a whole bunch of trouble. So they kinda pulled

it from the shelves. And [three] years later, they sign f*ckin’ Eminem sayin’

the same sh*t I was saying [three] years [before]. Do I think it’ll be repressed?

I don’t know. But in this computer era, you can go online and buy that album.

The computer killed the music but it also opened the gates for it.

Music Killz is available now!