E
ven in its rawest form, Hip-Hop has always been able to touch lives. Though some may not comprehend why middle-class suburbia has an affection for it, it is what it is. Anyone connected to Hip-Hop has wanted to use one of its elements to express their loyalty to it, by any means necessary. Case in point: Jamie Kennedy and Stu Stone from MTV’s Jamie Kennedy’s Blowin’ Up.
Viewers recognize Jamie Kennedy and partner, Stu Stone’s share personalities that kick in the doors with kindness, goofiness, and old fashioned fun. The show offers a bird’s eye view of the journey and all the work – with a little bit of celebrity – it takes to put JKSS records on the map. Though giggles may be the goal, Jamie and Stu take their work seriously. One of their album’s tracks, "Mattress Mack"
, a collaboration with Paul Wall, shows the level that the duo is aiming for. In his teens, Kennedy loved a Hip-Hop that celebrated the comedic flavor Flava Flav and Humpty Hump. Today, the 36 year-old Philly native wants to bring that back.
Though he’s humble, don’t mistake Jamie’s silliness for weakness. The veteran entertainer speaks to the critics, shows Lil’ Kim some love, and talks about the rappers he’s rolling with. To those who want to see him and his boy Stu Blow Up, he says, “Stay tuned.”
AllHipHop.com: How are you doing?
Jamie Kennedy: I’m good. Tell your people at AllHipHop.com good looking out on the love they are showing me.
AllHipHop.com: I will, but you just did. How long have you been in comedy?
Jamie Kennedy: I have been in comedy around ten years doing acting and stand-up.
AllHipHop.com: Do you really have affection for Hip-Hop or as a comedian do you see it as just another thing in our culture that can be made a mockery of?
Jamie Kennedy: No. I have a true affection for Hip-Hop, I love rap. I love Hip-Hop, I love the culture. To me, Hip-Hip is dancing, rap, DJing and spray-painting. That is what I was raised on, so I love it. The reason people don’t know what to make of me is the fact of me getting involved in that world is funny to people. I’m a fish out of water but what me and Stu [Stone] want to do with it is our version of Hip-Hop because we love it and it’s how we want to express ourselves. We aren’t trying to be anything we’re not, but we love it.
AllHipHop.com: Hip-Hop is still one thing that African Americans really covet. How do you respond to the people who are critical of the things you do?
Jamie Kennedy: Are there a lot of people who are critical?
AllHipHop.com: I’ve read some reviews that weren’t kind to [The Jamie Kennedy Experiment].
Jamie Kennedy: Are they from black or white journalists?
AllHipHop.com: Both sides seem to have accused the show of buffoonery.
Jamie Kennedy: In my experience, it’s been more white people who step to us not black people. I have a theory on it and I’ll try to explain it very clearly. White people are the same people that criticized Malibu’s Most Wanted and said they didn’t get it, but black people from Atlanta to Compton come up to us and tell us our show is hilarious. I can’t walk down the streets in the trap in Atlanta without getting so much love. The white people who write those reviews only say that because they’re scared of what black people are going to think. So before they hear a black person’s opinion, they put it out there that we’re stupid.
You know one of the best reviews I got for Malibu’s Most Wanted came from Howard University, so I think it’s funny when they say that! I didn’t mean to get all… but I’m real passionate about that. The last thing I want to say to the white people is, tell them to go to the trap, tell them to go to where the Pool Palace is, ask them have they been up to the Bay where E-40 is, or to Brazilm because me and Stu do travel, and I guarantee you we know our history. We’ve been down with the Dogg Pound we know, we meet, we talk to everybody and these people who say this stuff don’t. Ask any of them if they know who the Treacherous Three are, ask them do they know who Kool Moe Dee’s first group was. They don’t know and that is what p##### me off about critics because we know our history.
AllHipHop.com: That said, what was the purpose for you to show up looking like you guys were black on the episode with Three-6-Mafia?
Jamie Kennedy: We’re you laughing when you were watching it?
AllHipHop.com: Yes, but I did go back and forth within myself because I don’t know the real premise of the show; maybe you should clear all that up.
Jamie Kennedy: The show is a comedy and is set up in a way to make people laugh. In that episode, Tracy Morgan set us up and basically saying this is what you gotta do to break into Hip-Hop. He said I gotta get a girl pregnant; I didn’t want to do that, I gotta get a gun; I didn’t want to do that. I was testing out for that movie and he was like won’t you go with that. Also we were in prosthetic make-up, and the thought of someone thinking we were in black face scares me and we would never do that. It’s no different from when Eddie Murphy was in prosthetic make-up for Coming to America. I’ve been doing this my whole career when I would have to go into to make-up based on a character. If people really watch the show, they would get the premise and know we are never trying to be offensive.
AllHipHop.com: Give me the whole theory behind Jamie Kennedy Blowin Up. Are you and Stu really trying to be rap artists or is this another comedy show?
Jamie Kennedy: Me and Stu trying to break into the music business to get a record deal was so amusing and was so crazy we said, “Man, we gotta film this,” so that’s how we started. I don’t know if you know who Tenacious D [Rock group led by comedian Jack Black] is, we want to be that in Hip-Hop. We want to do our version of funny songs, rap and keep the beat so we can keep people laughing. Are we trying to be hardcore MCs or be something I’m not? No. Do I want to be a fun MC that plays the party record to keep the party going, reminiscent of early Kid N Play or young Will Smith who talked about fun themes? Yes. I’m not going to talk about the “struggle;” the struggle of what? Living in Hollywood and having a nice life, I can’t front! Ice-T said, “If I front, I’m dead,” and he’s right. Boy, you are getting a lot of passionate answers from me today.
AllHipHop.com: I have to ask you the questions the people want the answers to.
Jamie Kennedy: No, I like it.
AllHipHop.com: Do you feel like the idea of Punk’d was bitten from the Experience?
Jamie Kennedy: Everyone asks me that; [jokingly] he stole my lady too, I was with Demi before. No really, I can’t really say. I stole the idea from Candid Camera, but I will say this: I hate that it came out the exact same time I was doing my thing. What can you say, great minds think alike. Even with the similarities there are differences; he [Ashton Kutcher] play jokes on celebrities, and I played all the characters. Yeah, I was crooked.
AllHipHop.com: Your MTV series is doing really well, so other than the album, what do you have going on?
Jamie Kennedy: I just did a movie about break-dancing, about a kid who goes into a coma in 1986 and wakes up in 2006 and tries to break again. So I’m keeping the Hip-Hop theme going again in that. Other than that, we are really focusing on our album that dropped July 11th on JKSS Records. We’ll try to go out on tour in the middle of August and that’s pretty much all we’re working on.
AllHipHop.com: Do you just sit up and smoke ‘dro and come up with this stuff?
Jamie Kennedy: No, that’s Stu’s department with the greenery. My brain is just crazy from the get-go; although we did have some good kush the other night.
AllHipHop.com: You were rumored to be linked up with Lil’ Kim. She’s home now, are you going to check on her?
Jamie Kennedy: I know, crazy, huh? That is my boo. I love Lil’ Kim, we met in Miami, and she is the best, I love her— I got my lighter up right now. You know she is going to drop a jewel; she’s going to have mad stories and rhymes. She should’ve never went in, but she’d don’t eat cheese and that’s why she went in there.
AllHipHop.com: What’s the name of the album?
Jamie Kennedy: Blowin’ Up, we’re just keeping it simple.
AllHipHop.com: Who is distributing the album?
Jamie Kennedy: JKSS we are doing it independently, but we are getting some help from Warner Brothers on the distributing and market it.
AllHipHop.com: Who’s on the album?
Jamie Kennedy: E-40, Paul Wall, Bob Saget [from Full House]
AllHipHop.com: Bob Saget, what?
Jamie Kennedy: Yeah, we did a song along with Bob Saget.
AllHipHop.com: How effective has Myspace been for you and Stu promoting yourselves as artists?
Jaime Kennedy: Myspace is huge. Stu got me on it; he’s been on for awhile like when there was only like 600,000 people on it. It’s the spot, it’s like making your own radio station and at first people didn’t think it was really me but now they know really hit me up. It’s been a great way for me to reach out to my fans; I love it. Tell my fans if they need anything, just [check] www.myspace.com/jamiekennedy. They can buy the album there too.