Inspectah Deck: Rebel Yell

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 […]

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.