AllHipHop.com: That’s dope. What are your thoughts on the whole Illuminati thing? Do you believe it’s real? GLC: I believe that the Illuminati is one percent of the human population that controls I believe it’s either 60 or 80 percent of the world’s wealth and at the end of the day, it’s kind of crazy because back in the 90’s we were talking about the Illuminati and no one would have ever imagined that in 2010 people would be saying the Illuminati is rappers. Like the Illuminati…those are like multi-billionaire people that are rich as hell and have more money than countries and sh*t and I don’t know no rappers that’s doing it like that, you know? It’s just kind of crazy. If it’s real, it is…all I can say is I don’t know but I could say that when it seems like people are less fortunate than others, people always have a reason for why that person has it and they don’t. You know when you’re less fortunate and you see somebody balling, you want to come up with all sorts of crazy ways and things that person had to do in order to obtain that. I know that people were saying that Kanye is a part of the Illuminati and he sacrificed his mom and all this type of crazy s**t…he loved his mom. He wouldn’t sacrifice his mom! That’s f*cking crazy! Aside from that…this is why I know it’s a fine example: from the time he was 12 years old to the time he got on, he made beats every day. Sort of like Michael Jordan…every day he went to the gym. When everyone else was out, he was working on his game. But just because he’s so good at what he does, “Aw man he has to be the Illuminati!” I think people just need to spend more time focusing on what they can do to make their lives better as opposed to focusing on why somebody has something and they don’t. GLC – “To A Gangster”

AllHipHop.com: I like the way you put that! GLC:

You feel me? Like same way you being a woman and you working for AllHipHop, it’s probably people like aw man, she got to be f*cking this person” or she did that or she did that…why can’t you just be good as hell at what you do? AllHipHop.com:

Right! GLC:

And it’s kind of f***ed up like, I don’t want to say it’s targeted towards black people but it’s like out on the internet and someone’s like, “man, you see that Illuminati s**t?!” and they’ll be like “yea I seen it” or “nah I didn’t see it” but “man I know this sh*t real!” “Why is it real?” “Because it’s on the internet!” You know what I’m saying?

AllHipHop.com:

As we wrap this up, you have any last words you want the readers to know?

GLC:

I want people to be able to hit me up on Facebook, GLCITYMUSIC. You can also find me on my website which is GLCITYMUSIC.com. And you can find me on Twitter.com/GLCTHEISM. And on YouTube it’s MRGLC87. And I’d just like to say shout out to the great city of Chicago, the west coast and up top and everybody that’s just been showing love to a young player. Album in stores now. Church.

Chicago rapper GLC has quite the resume. He’s been on two of Kanye West’s albums, he’s done over 70 features just this year with the likes of Bun B, Kid Cudi and more. He managed to secure a first-of-its-kind distribution deal with EMI/Capitol Records. And miraculously even got Bruce Springsteen himself to clear a sample for his album, something “The Boss” has never done in the past. But with all of these accomplishments, GLC, who was one of the first rappers on Kanye’s G.O.O.D. Music imprint, has been noticeably absent from Ye’s recent GOOD Friday music leaks. GLC checks in with AllHipHop to give an update on the latest and give some insight on his love, life and loyalty. Church. AllHipHop.com: While major hip hop heads and definitely followers of Kanye know who you are and know your story, there are some that just kind of know your name, know you rap, but they don’t really know who you are. To those people that ask, who’s GLC? GLC: GLC is the ism, baby. I am the church. I am the proclamation of my prosperity. You know an O.G. hustler from Chicago and I handle my business. AllHipHop.com: You received notoriety because Kanye placed you on his first album, but before that, how’d you get into rapping? GLC: I started rapping because I was looking up to the rappers. You know they had money, they had cars, they had women, they had gold chains and I lived in the ghetto. At the time, they was everything. Like you can get those things? The nice cars, women, money, jewelry…damn you was the man! So at the end of the day, the rappers were so cool…growing up in Chicago, that’s who we aspired to be like. You know? They were making money, they were successful and aside from that, they were people that we could relate to.

AllHipHop.com: So how’d you link up with Kanye? How did that come about? GLC: Well Kanye and I we linked up in like 1993. We were kids! We had a mutual friend that went to the grammar school that I had went to that had transferred to Kanye’s grammar school. They became friends; they were in a rap group at the time. Then he told me like “yo, my man Kanye makes beats. You should come over here and listen to the beats man I’m telling you he real cold!” So I went over there and he was real cold!

“I know that people were saying that Kanye is a part of the Illuminati

and he sacrificed his mom and all this type of crazy s**t…he loved his mom. “-GLC

GLC Feat. Kanye West – “The Big Screen”

AllHipHop.com: Kanye placed you on College Dropout and that was the public’s first introduction to GLC, then Late Registration after that. What did those placements do for you as far as your career? Do you think they were equally helpful? Did Late Registration kind of drive home the buzz created off College Dropout? GLC: Those placements really enhanced my appeal. They made people see me more. My appearances they began to soar you know? They propelled my ism to new heights. It made the world be able to understand and hear my concepts and it gave me a different plateau, another avenue to display my ism and my talents you know? And with that being said, from the grace of God, my appearances were very well received by the public which sparked me having a pretty good underground career. And now it’s time to take it to the forefront with my new album. Church.

AllHipHop.com: Lately Kanye’s been building a really big buzz with his group and the whole G.O.O.D. music thing on Twitter but you haven’t really been part of the songs, part of the hype. Are you still down with G.O.O.D. music?

GLC: (laughs) Well I’ll tell you this. G.O.O.D. music is my family. Kanye is my man. But I have my own company now called Get It Man Entertainment. With my company I learned a lot from being under the G.O.O.D. Music umbrella….I was up under the umbrella until 2006. Ever since then I haven’t been on paperwork with G.O.O.D. Music but they were always my family and still are. But on paperwork, I have my own company. It’s called Get It Man Entertainment. With my company, I’m the first company that EMI/Capitol records has ever done a distribution deal for an artist with no sales history. So Kanye being my friend, I learned a lot. I sat back and I watched how he moved in his own company and I took the game and the advice that he told me and I went and started my own.

AllHipHop.com: Your album dropped on last Tuesday…for those that haven’t copped yet, what should they expect from the album? Kanye West Feat. GLC & Consequence – “Spaceship”

GLC: Well on the album you gon’ hear a lot of the ism baby, you gon hear pimping, hustling, love, life and loyalty you know? It’s sort of like the return of back when the pimping, the hustling, the gangsterism…you could learn something from it like the middle and early 90’s you know? Take you back like retro-style. But at the same time giving you things that you knew that enlighten you. You know I teach you how to grow and develop. And on the album, the features that are included are the likes of Bun B and Sir Mix-a-Lot who are on my first single called “Clockin Lotsa Dollars.” I also have Kanye West and T-Pain, I have Twista, I have BJ the Chicago Kid, I have John Legend. This group from London they were really big in the 70’s I have them on the record. They performed over a sample that was cleared by Bruce Springsteen and he has never cleared a sample before so the album is already history in the making. From doing the deal with EMI, the type of deal we did and the fact I’m the first sample Bruce Springsteen cleared…and I’m just giving you the ism baby when you hear it you’re going to embrace the concept. You’re going to embrace the love, life and loyalty. Church. AllHipHop.com: How did you get this deal with EMI? Why do you think they chose you to be the first one with this type of deal, of all other potential artists?

GLC: Well the reason being it was the hard work, the perseverance, the appearances that I made. I’m on Kanye’s project, I’m on Kid Cudi’s new project, I’m on Bun B’s project, I’m on the Outlawz new album, I’m on Donnis’s new project, Chip Tha Ripper, Shawn Christopher, P. Wonder. I have over 70 features this year on other people’s projects. Not only that but I just been dropping I guess just solid records that made people want to sign me. Prior to me signing the deal with EMI, I had about 4 or 5 different situations pending in which I could have gone and developed with them but I chose EMI. First off you want to be able to stunt and say hey I made history but more so importantly than that they had the structure and they had the right set up so we could grow and develop together. AllHipHop.com: It’s been 6 years since you first came out on Kanye’s record and now you’re finally coming out with your first album. Up to this point, what has the journey been like for you? Do you feel like it took too long?

GLC: The journey has been great. From 04 to 07, I lived on the road. I was always on tours with Kanye opening up, and coming out and performing on his sets and gaining notoriety and raising my appeal. I was giving my persona to the people just so that they could embrace the concept you know? That was a great stage for me to start off on. The last tour that we did in 07 it was like man I been on the road all these years, I been dropping these mixtapes, I been doing these features and everywhere I went slowly but surely people would begin to ask, “when’s the album coming out? What’s up what’s going on?” Since then I’ve had a few different offers on the table in order to put out this project but I felt that before me taking those offers I had to get my weight up. Those offers could be what I really wanted them to be if I got my weight up. I had to pretty much let people know who GLC was outside of just being the guy who performed on Kanye’s records and gave you memorable verses. I had to let people enter my world and grow with me so I chose to do the viral approach. I went very hard on the viral effort…the internet embraced it. It was just a couple years ago, the Cool Kids and I…one group and one guy from Chicago with nothing on the radio, nothing on TV…just a solid internet presence and we were named the 2 biggest local artists in Chicago by XXL. So with that I was like, “aw man this internet s**t, it really works!” So I just kept going and when you keep going….like I’ve seen artists come out under other artists in the past and often the results are like grand opening, grand closing. So I chose to step outside of that and let people know who I am and what I stand for so we can all grow and develop together. Church.

AllHipHop.com: After this album, what else are you hoping to obtain in this industry? Do you want to keep rapping…are there other things you have your hand in that you hope this could maybe open the door for you to do? GLC: Oh yes ma’am. I want to get into acting. Right now I’m shooting a short film here in Chicago for my album called Love, Life and Loyalty. Aside from that, I have a cartoon that I’m working on called “Welcome to Haterville.” With that I have a couple networks that are interested in moving forward with the project and aside from that I have a tee-shirt line, Just GLC Tees that we’re working on to get out there for the people to embrace the concept. I really want to just focus on trying to help end the genocide inside our community. Seeing these kids out here on this foolishness just killing each other, I want to help to try to restore order to the streets of America because it’s tough out here and somebody got to try to stand up. I’m on the pursuit of happiness.

Click here as GLC talks candidly about Kanye West and the Illuminati Rumors

Skillz will go down in history as the first rapper to hi-jack an entire television network and win.

The veteran MC from Virginia released a “direct-to-web” version of BET’s popular rhyme “Cypher“replete with punchlines like “I’ll pull your card like Gambit/ Make it so easy a cave man can understand it…”

The couplets were punctuated with costume changes, a dramatic pause to apply chap stick (brrrr!)  and finally a not so subtle whisper to the network’s honcho:

“Shout [to] BET and Debra Lee cuz she bossy/Next time you want some Skillz in your Cypher…call me”

Well it wasn’t a phone call but who uses those in the age of Twitter?  BET ’s Executive Vice President Stephen Hill  immediately took to the social network and wrote, “Stunned @SkillzVa is OFFICIALLY in next year’s cypher! here’s why,” linking to the clip.

With more marketing saavy than your average rapper (or record executive for that matter) this is just the latest in a series of moves for the MC who has made his yearly “Wrap-Ups” and “True Hip-Hop Confessions” hip-hop staples. And the timing couldn’t be better. His next solo album, We Need More Skillz, is coming out on October 26th and his mixtape with DJ Jazzy Jeff and J. Period, Infamous Quotes is available for download now.

In this TheUrbanDaily.com exclusive we discuss the method to his madness and why exactly the world needs more Skillz.

TUD: What made you go out and create your won version of BET’s “Cypher”?

Skillz: When I did it, the goal was for [Stephen Hill] to see it. Either him or Debra Lee. I wanted them to see why I should have been in it. I think a lot of people might overlook me. I’ve always been under rated and that’s cool. And anytime something happens with me in my career people say “oh, that’s a good look for Skillz.” They don’t even expect it anymore.”Oh, Skillz’ joint on 106 and Park, he’s number 3!” They don’t even expect to see me in certain places but I’m always there. I’m not one of these new kids; I’m not Cali Swag or Roscoe Dash. But I’m not Melly Mel either. I’m somewhere right in the middle where I could still put out quality music and people will still appreciate it. Just when you start thinking that I don’t got it [I put out] a “Call Me Crazy” or “Owe Me For Real.”  I’m from that era, that’s what I do. If I haven’t learned anything, I’ve learned how to create a buzz. Even if it’s not for a long time. I’ve learned how to create something and make you pay attention to it and the average person will say “damn, that’s a good ass idea.” If you think of anything major that I’ve been a part in the last few years, it was just a good idea. The “Wrap Ups”, the “Hip Hop Confessions,” when you listen to the mixtape you’ll get the idea behind that. I just have to have good ideas a lot more often than Drake. I’m not going to get the same accolades [as him]. I’m not going to stand in the peanut gallery and hate on Drake like “he got it easy.” I worked for this s###. But I know that if Drake comes into the radio station and does one drop with Funk Master Flex and he freestyles, I have to do a better freestyle and do a drop for every DJ there. That’s the only way I’m going to get recognized.

So are you going to take BET up on the offer?

Skillz: I definitely would not pass up a chance to be on television, on one of the biggest networks of our generation. I don’t take those kind of looks likely. Even if I would have been in the Cypher, I only got 16 bars to make this happen, to make everybody talk about me tomorrow. Don’t get me wrong, in my Cypher I went a little long because I could but I’m sure Stephen Hill would take me up on it. We’ve crossed paths a couple times. He knows who I am when he sees me but maybe he just didn’t make that connection. Through the power of Twitter I got him to pay attention. It worked.FOR THE REST OF THE INTERVIEW, CLICK HERE.

The BET Top 10 Rappers of the 21st Century was destined for controversy. But when the votes were tabulated, there were more than a few grumbles about the omission of one Nelly, the pioneering St. Louis rapper. Nelly did not make the list even though he was in the Top 15 eligible rappers.

AllHipHop.com chatted with Nelly before the actual show was broadcast and got his take on his place in this discussion.

Click here for the full conversation with Nelly.