AllHipHop: You been talking all this stuff about
Priority Records, how they can’t market and promote hip-hop records, but Chingy’s
platinum my man.
RK: I can say two things: first of all, Priority
Record’s has enormous luck, and basically, I know DTP Records, I knew everybody
before they even signed when they were telling me that Priority wanted to sign
Chingy, now, I’m not gonna put no s### on nobody’s name, but first of all that’s
Ludacris’ artist that for the most part Ludacris and them took on the role and
broke themselves, that has very little to do with Priority promoting the record,
all they can do is suck d*ck and ride off of somebody else’s fame, they have
yet to break an artist still. Congratulations to Chingy, I wish him the best,
but to my understanding – I don’t want to put nobody else’s business out there
– they not all that happy. So once again it goes back to, what about Bad Azz,
what about Roscoe, when you’re not attached to a quadruple-platinum artist what
about you?
AllHipHop: Now, going back here a little bit,
this has been reported, is it true that they’re holding you to the time left
in your contract, which is now less than 20 days, until after you’re released
from prison?
RK: Nope, I have no knowledge of that because
they would have to serve me legally with something and they have…
AllHipHop: So basically, when you step out of
jail are you still technically under contract to them?
RK: Like I said, we setting a court date. First
of all, there’s some legal things that I don’t wanna talk about and give them
no heads-up, so I just can’t discuss it, but all I would say is we’ll have a
day in court to decide all that.
AllHipHop: So let’s say hypothetically that you
do win in the court proceeding, what then happens to the Goldyn Chyld album?
Would you work out an arrangement with them to put it out?
RK: No, I don’t want anything to do with Priority
Records. I’m pretty sure it would find itself to the bootleggers. It will probably
get out in some way, shape or form. I’m not really concerned about Goldyn Chyld,
I went out and I did this other album which was initially called Catch Me If
U Can, and I’m probably gonna call it Splinter Cell now. I want people to hear
(Goldyn Chyld), if it’s on raskass-central.com at some point, that’s fine.
AllHipHop: Let’s get some status updates on some
of your side projects, first what’s the current state of Golden State?
RK: I love them cats. I talk to Xzibit on a
regular basis. There’s always gonna be a Golden State in some way, shape or
form, I don’t know if the original members will always be there, who knows,
life take you where it takes you. I mean even Xzibit, he has his a different
group now, Strong Arm Steady, which is all the homies too, so it’s dope. Personally
I think Ras Kass should form a new trio with Eminem and Jay-Z.Well, Jay-Z’s
retired.
AllHipHop: That was my segue into the next question,
according to the Jan./Feb. ’04 issue of XXL you’re not even in their league.
You were awarded one of the top 5 "Negro Please" quotes for the year
for the following quote…
RK: I know the quote. I have a lot of respect
for XXL, it’s kind of like David and Goliath, pick on the little n*gga. I ain’t
sold the records of (Eminem and Jay-Z) so it’s really hard to have a pissing
contest when I’m pissing against a fire hose. I was unhappy with my article
(June ’03), and Kay Slay got on the radio for hours and completely sh*tted on
XXL. When I called in, I talked to Slay and I said, ‘I think it was kinda foul,
they kinda snitched me out,’ the sh*t I was unhappy about for all of three minutes
at the most. I never said you’re a fake Source, you’re this that and the third,
but it was kiss Kay Slay’ a**, and let’s sh*t on Ras Kass. In that same issue
is their most hated moments, ‘Kay Slay b*tching about his review.’ So you kiss
his a** and then sh*t on Ras Kass ’cause he really can’t fight back. Now I’m
a "Negro Please," but you printed five letters out of six (August
’03) saying the exact same thing I said.
AllHipHop: Do you think folks in this industry
respect your actions with regard to fighting your label even though it would
mean your incarceration?
RK: I appreciate XXL, allhiphop.com, anybody
that gave a f*ck, because I didn’t run out and say, ‘hey, guess what, I’m not
gonna turn myself in, and I’ma have a CD and I want all y’all to come,’ like
when Nas got to burn the books. Nas sold lots of records so people give a f*ck
if he wanna go burn some magazines. I didn’t expect nobody to give a f*ck that
I’m not gonna turn myself in, I did that for my family and for my kids. I appreciate
the fact that XXL gave me a platform to speak, I wish they would have been a
little more concise about what I said, and I had a grievance about that. I wanna
thank XXL, they still press they can hate on me, they just mad at me now, we
gonna make friends later anyway.
AllHipHop: Ok, enough of that, let’s move on
to something else here, what’s the word on the Horsemen, there’s a 9 track album
floating out there now, but it’s not the real album, it’s been listed as a pre-quel
to a full album according to Killah Priest. Do you know when or if a commercially
available Horsemen album will manifest itself?
RK: I think Kurupt’s negotiating a deal right
now, so I don’t wanna step on his toes, but I know he’s negotiating on our behalf
with a couple of labels.
AllHipHop: Are the Horsemen getting any compensation
for the sales of this pre-quel album?
RK: I don’t think so; I don’t think I am.
AllHipHop: Have you spoken to Canibus, Kurupt,
or Killah Priest since you’ve been incarcerated?
RK: Yes, Canibus wrote me, I talked to Kurupt
a couple of times, and I actually haven’t talked to Priest, I was supposed to
get his number from Kurupt, everybody’s doing good. Kurupt was just kind of
telling me what the plan was, they got enough stuff for the first album and
then I’ll be out by the time we would need to do anything for a second album
if that was the case.
AllHipHop: Can you give any hint without ruining
things if he’s looking towards a major or independent?
RK: I don’t know, he had told me a couple of
labels that he had sat down with, apparently majors.
AllHipHop: Will your Catch Me If U Can album
and DVD ever see the light of day? I think you mentioned that it’s gonna be
under a new title, so you wanna explain how that’s gonna make its way to the
public.
RK: Priority sent these letters to "cease
and desist," so even the people that did express interest (in distributing
it), nobody wants to deal with the headache and lawsuits and people telling
you you can’t put out what you just spent this money on. Very few people are
willing to take that risk, and they tend to be smaller companies. I don’t wanna
specify, but we’ll probably be finalizing a deal on it within the next twenty
days, and it’ll be a smaller company.
AllHipHop: Was anything already manufactured?
RK: No, nothing’s manufactured, all we got is
the masters and artwork.
AllHipHop: What happened with the Re-Up compilation
that was supposed to be released commercially last summer?
RK: It is, but Priority sent a letter to "cease
and desist." If you don’t see it in the store, you can go to the front
and they can order it, the record is out. It’s just Priority sent a letter to
"cease and desist," which…
AllHipHop: Did that stop BMG from distributing?
RK: Or really promoting and everything, it becomes
that headache. Nobody wants to deal with that sh*t.
AllHipHop: When you get out do you intend to
record under the Re-Up Entertainment logo?
RK: I wanna control my own destiny for once.
Me and Scipio are the two artists on Re-Up Entertainment.
AllHipHop: Now you just mentioned your protégé
and label-mate, Scipio, how do you feel about seeing Young Scip take the reigns?
RK: I’m hating on him right now, nah I’m just
kidding. (laughs) He’s not my protégé for one, he’s his own man,
he’s just a good cat that ain’t a snake, I try to keep good company around me,
good energy. I’m really happy man ’cause he got the talent, and he ain’t gotta
fall into the pitfalls that I fell into.
AllHipHop: Word is he’s getting some looks from
some big boys.
RK: Yeah man, Re-Up, that’s how it got to go
man!
