AllHipHop.com: Where do you rank yourself in terms of lyricists. I always had you in the Top Five, Top 10 easily…
Redman: I’m in the Top Five. I don’t brag on myself. It depends. Even y’all [AllHipHop.com] muthaf***as, you gotta ask yourself, “What the f**k is the qualities of being a lyricist?” Now, how many hot songs you can get played on the radio, no, no – besides that. How about the ones that don’t get the play on the radio? It’s about who can still bang after all these years and still got it. Who can just walk in the party [and rock it]. I might not got the radio play, but when it comes to consistency, you gotta put me up there. We know the Jay-Z’s and Biggies. Biggie will always be there, but that s**t gotta broaden from the Top Three. Y’all gotta stop being stingy. AllHipHop.com: You produced your second album, Dare Iz A Darkside, are you still doing beats? Redman: A little bit. AllHipHop.com: Just a little bit? I heard you do ghost producing. Redman: [Pauses, laughs] On what? I don’t think I did…uh nah. AllHipHop.com: Why haven’t you been doing more production? Redman: I don’t have enough time. But when I finish [this album], when I start working my artists and s**t, I’ma be banging out on these MP’s and this Motif. AllHipHop.com: With the album, who is on production? Redman: Erick Sermon, Rockwilder. My new crew is called the Gillahouse Nuthouse and we did like three on here. I produced one and one of my n***as co-produced it. Scott Storch did one for me. AllHipHop.com: Now, I noticed that you are becoming more business minded with a lot of the things you do. Redman: You know how you always have passions for a few things in life. Like you might wanna learn to play the piano or you might wanna learn to play the drums. I want to learn to play the piano, I want to learn to play guitar. I was always a sneaker head and that’s why I’m opening a store in Staten Island. We gonna get some assistance from Nike and that’s a blessing as well. Besides that, I was always into women’s shoes. And that’s my next move – designing women’s shoes. I buy my woman’s shoes and she gets complimented on them constantly. And plus, I always been a fan of women’s feet. I love them feet. Why wouldn’t I want to design a shoe? And say, “Yeah, them’s my shoes and they look sexy.” I just want to see a woman’s fine ass feet in my shoe. I’m not even looking at it from a money aspect I just want to see a woman’s fine ass feet in my shoe. Like “Yeah, I designed that. Don’t they feel comfortable?” And that’s just being grown about stuff. AllHipHop.com: You keep talking this grown stuff! Redman: This Hip-Hop stuff ain’t gonna take care of you all your life. If you depending on that, it’s a wrap. AllHipHop.com: Are you thinking about retiring? Redman: Not far as music, but it’s gonna be a day when I give up the mic. That’s when I get my Gillahouse [crew] going so I can do albums like Dr. Dre. I wanna do that in the next couple of years. AllHipHop.com: How have you evolved as a person? Redman: My career has moved like this [steadily up]. I’ve been blessed for that. I guess, being in tune with reality, I’m still here. I ain’t gotta be super big to be cool with my people. I got more responsibility now. My responsibility then [coming up] was smoking weed, but when I had my first kid, I said. “I gotta pace myself.” I think I did pretty good. AllHipHop.com: Now, the last album was shaky. Redman: It was in and out, because I was in and out. I was doing that movie and I was getting that gwap over here. I wasn’t focused on the album. That album still sold 700,000 records. I even turned down two tours. I f**ked up on my part, but I still sold 700,000 with on video and no radio play. AllHipHop.com: Do you feel like the movies and acting took away from the musical side of you? Redman: No, not at all. I air the mic out tremendously now. AllHipHop.com: We used to fear you back in the day. You had bloody hands on your first album and stuff like PPV fights… Redman: I was young. I was smoking all kinds of stuff back then. I’m grown now. I can’t be up there at 30, even 28, fighting. If you bout that business, you don’t have to fight. AllHipHop.com: You still had the song “Rush The Security,” and that’s not exactly screaming maturity. Redman: That was just like, what the club is. That didn’t have anything to do with business. Security – they be too bulky. AllHipHop.com: Is the “Headbanger” hotter than “The Symphony,” the song that featured the Juice Crew All-Stars? Redman: I don’t know, man. I can’t say on that one. I had to think on that one. AllHipHop.com: With all the stuff that went on with EPMD, can you tell us anything we don’t know? Redman: No, not really. You heard it all. The only that I say is that I never got my chance to shine. Everybody was having fun and s**t – EPMD and Das EfX – and everybody started fighting when it was time for Redman to drop. I ain’t get the Hit Squad. Besides that, you live and you learn. It’s grown-up time.