Armed with a vicious flow and an even more ferocious attitude, 20-year-old newcomer Keyona Turner aka Keys aka The Problem aka The Beast isn’t playing around. Keys burst onto the scene after posting a diss video on YouTube against Hip Hop’s newest female go-to-girl, Nicki Minaj. To the instrumental of Nicki’s “Itty Bitty Piggy” Keys goes in, “This is not a rap b***h, this is Miley Cyrus. Must be something wrong ‘cause this beat is playing s**t. Now she’s on the second verse and still ain’t saying s**t.”

Keys released her debut mix-tape, “The Infiltration” on May 22nd. There is no doubt that Keys is ready for war. “I’m A Spartan” serves as an ode to all her ride or die fans and further explains her Spartan movement. Songs like “I Am”, “F**k You” and “Hit Em” are your basic gutter go-hard tracks in which Keys attempts to ascertain her place in Hip Hop. With her not so subtle jabs at everyone’s favorite Harajuku Barbie over-top blazing beats, Keys is coming at Hip-Hop with a vengeance, putting together a body of work that shows vehemently displays her talent and immense potential. On “Ether”, Keys takes a page from Nas’s rhyme book, using the historical instrumental to pen a lyrical beat down that would even make the Hip-Hop legend stand up and take notice.

Since Keys blatant and unwarranted attack, Nicki hasn’t exactly responded but she has mentioned tha she won’t respond to those who live on “planet bum”. And Keys…well, read on.

AllHipHop.com: What makes Keys a problem?

Keys: I am a problem because I say what I feel. And most of the time I feel something really angry and I feel all the stuff that ya’ll don’t want people to say. So, that’s why I’m a problem. I came to expose you.

AllHipHop.com: Who are you trying to expose?

Keys: Anybody that’s um, that’s getting by without doing anything. You know what I mean? I feel like too many people are in the game and their lightweights and their claiming to be heavyweights. I just came to prove that, you’re not as slick as you say you are.

AllHipHop.com: Let’s talk about Nicki Minaj. What is your beef with her? Why are you going so hard?

Keys: The thing about it is, ok, first thing, this is how it all started. I did the Nicki Minaj diss that got on YouTube. The Nicki Minaj diss was not orchestrated. Like I didn’t sit here and plan it like ok, I’m gonna do this video and it’s gonna get a million views and I’m gonna be on World Star Hip Hop and everyone’s gonna know my name. That was not the intent at all. It was really so random, it was lighthearted, we was playing around. Me and my homebody, we was just joking. And um, I think we had watched the video a long time before we actually was like, let’s put it on YouTube. Just so I could have it for my friends to put it on MySpace and just geeking of it. I remember being in school and somebody hit me up, they was like you know you’ve got like 700,000 views. And I was like what? What are you talking about? So it wasn’t planned in that aspect. But I think that on her part, she should have just let it be. Like I would have been done if she would have never came back with her little response and planet bum. Like, I took offense to that. Like what do you mean? Who lives on planet bum? Like anybody that doesn’t have a Ferrari or anybody that doesn’t live the lifestyle that you live. So who lives on planet bum? That’s 75 percent of your fans. So certain stuff like that really annoys me. I get annoyed by people throwing slurs. Don’t throw slurs. If you gon’ have something to say, say it. And I feel like she’s still doing it. Like songs that she does now. On that DJ Khaled remix s**t, she was like oh you’re on welfare and I see you in your bummy sweats. She’s definitely talking about me. But she’s still trying be strategic. And that’s not gonna help you. Like if you would have just shut up a very long time ago. I would have moved the f**k on.

Nicki Addresses Keys – Sort Of…

AllHipHop.com: If you had the opportunity to meet with her person to person, face to face, would you be willing to squash it?

Keys: No, because it’s not a beef in that aspect. A beef is like that is like you smacked my mother in the face and when I see you I’m a have to smack you back. This is not a deep as people are trying to make it. I think I mentioned this on my mix-tape. If this was the 80’s, it wouldn’t have been that serious. People drop disses on people in Hip Hop all the time and that’s what it is. Either you come back and defend yourself or you just look stupid. It’s not as deep as everybody is trying make it. If I say her, I would just be like damn, you still can’t think of s**t to say and that would be it. It’s a Hip Hop beef battle. I mean, its rap. Let’s not make a whole big thing about it.

AllHipHop.com: Do you think you’re better than Nicki Minaj?

Keys: Um, I don’t think that anybody questions if I’m lyrically better than her. I think people question if I can succeed as an artist and if I can like you said like you said brand myself. I don’t think that anybody questions if I’m better than her, lyrically.

AllHipHop.com: But do YOU think you’re better?

Keys: Of course! There’s nothing that she can do with me, lyrically. There’s nothing she can do with me.

AllHipHop.com? So you’re saying she can’t touch you?

Keys: Can’t touch me with a ten foot pole. That’s why she’s doing what she’s doing. She knows she stands a chance if she brings up material things. If she says stuff like, [mocks Nicki] I’m in a money green jag. You know what I mean? You got me beat there. You ballin’ sweetheart, you got that. But there’s nothing that you can do with me lyrically and she knows that. That’s why she wants to make it a fame and money beef. Instead of a b#### I rap better than you beef.

On the “Itty Bitty Piggy” diss, Keys barks, “When them boys try to play, I’m like nah you dumb. I was chasing big s**t, they money was too young.”

AllHipHop.com: On Itty Bitty Do you have a problem with Young Money? Or just Nicki?

Keys: You know, Young Money is cool. It’s a lot of people on Young Money to respect lyrically. You know, they’re ok. I don’t have a problem with Young Money as a whole. I didn’t mention them in the diss. Yea, I kind of did, didn’t I? But I don’t give a f**k. I don’t care. Do what you feel.

AllHipHop.com: What are your thoughts the history of females and the roles they’ve played in Hip Hop?

Keys: I think that when Hip Hop, in itself started, not just females, but I think that when we started it was so much more smart. And so much more politically driven and we had something to say. We was making a statement. It was a pivotal thing to happen in African American culture. Because we were standing up for stuff. We had something to say. We had our party songs too but I feel like it was a little bit more powerful than what it is now. I think now, it’s just a watered down version of itself. As far as females go, I think they are just following the watered down trend that has Hip Hop has become. I think that people do what they see other people in the game doing. And they feel like they have to do those steps to be successful. That’s why you see a lot of artist repeating styles and even verses and looks that artists have already done because they feel like ok let me do what she did to be successful when really it’s just making s**t weak. It’s like come on we’ve seen this s**t before. People are afraid to do something different because they feels like there’s a formula so they do that. But I just saw f**k it and laugh and walk away.

AllHipHop.com: Who would you consider working with once you get on? Do you think it’s important, especially as a female, to embrace other female artists?v

Keys: I don’t believe that. We don’t support the same stuff. I don’t believe what you believe in. I don’t glorify the s**t you glorify. So I’m not gonna get on a song with you. I don’t care. That’s just like somebody telling Malcolm X to do a song with the Ku Klux Klan because they’re both humans. No! We’re on two different notes.

AllHipHop.com: Not just Nicki. There’s Eve, Trina and Missy Elliott.

Keys: You know, there’s some of them but I feel like (pauses to think)

AllHipHop.com: Is there no female you respect in Hip Hop?

Keys: Yes, there are females I respect but I don’t like when people say all females should have unity because a lot of them don’t have the mentality I have. And I feel like I would be phony to get on a song with somebody where I don’t like their style and I don’t like what they do. I like Eve a lot. I like Remy a lot. Lauyrn Hill is my girl. But I feel like a lot of people, they run in that same lane and they’re doing stuff that I don’t quite support.

AllHipHop.com: What would you say to those who think you are just using Nicki as a catalyst to get on?

Keys: I didn’t intend for it to be that way. I didn’t think it was gonna happen that way. But to be honest, that it what happened. You know what I mean? I’m getting a lot of attention right now because I murdered Nicki Minaj on track. That’s the reality of the situation. Did I intend it? No. But is that’s what’s happening? Yes. Why would you allow some s**t like that though? I would never allow you to get buzz and fame from f***ing my name up. Why would you allow that? I think the question people need to ask is why she is letting me do it. It’s hilarious to me.

AllHipHop.com: Define the Spartan movement. What’s that all about?

Keys: I call my fans Spartans because I feel like the whole story of 300 was pretty much parallel to us. My fans stood behind me when it was only a small group of us and they didn’t care that it was millions of Nicki Minaj fans. They were like we’re with you because you’re real. And I don’t care if it’s only five of us. And that’s why I say that. We’re a small group of people who just go hard and we just march against the largest mass.

AllHipHop.com: Besides the “Itty Bitty Piggy” diss, there’s not much of your music out there. What are you working on right now?

Keys: Well that’s pretty much because before, I wasn’t doing this music thing before all of this happened. I was in college.

AllHipHop.com: Where’d you go to college?

Keys: Medix [College], it’s an associate’s degree program they have there. I was taking up surgical technology. And I was just gonna be a surge tech. I wasn’t thinking about rap. But with the whole video situation that happened, I just got a huge outreach of people that was like we want you to really go in. So just recently I started doing a lot of recording. My mix-tape is called “The Infiltration” and it drops tomorrow, May 22nd. And if you check my twitter and my Facebook, you’ll be able to get all of that information. You’ll definitely be able to find more coming real soon.

AllHipHop.com: What would you say your style is? What influences your style?

Keys: My style, I think it’s a mesh of some of the harder rappers of today like Eminem-ish Cassidy-ish. But I definitely have the old school flow. You’ll definitely hear some KRS-One even some Lauryn Hill kind of vibes. So I definitely think, I would call it uncut, raw and old school.

AllHipHop.com: Who were some of your influences? Who do you like?

Keys: Cassidy. Jadakiss. KRS-One is huge in my book because he always kept it real. He never cut any corners with anybody. He always laid it out. So KRS-One definitely number one in my book.

AllHipHop.com: What do you think you have that other rappers don’t?

Keys: I don’t really care. But I think that what I would bring to the game is just uncensoredness. And I think that a lot of rappers and even artists, everything they do is planned and just strategic. Like you know, I have to say this because this is going to make people think this. And I have to do this and wear this cause it’s gonna look like this. And I’m just like f**k you. This is what I have to say. Maybe tomorrow I’ll regret that I said it but I just don’t care. I mean, I say things that everybody wants to say and I feel like people find relieve in that. Like I knew Keys was gonna put it out there for me so…

AllHipHop.com: Today in Hip Hop, it’s all about branding. You have to be marketable. What are you doing to make sure that people are going to feel you?

Keys: I try not to think about that. Because I think that my appeal now is that raw, uncut, unplannedness. And it’s not this whole orchestrated thing. You know what I mean? So, I try not to be like this is what Keys does. And this is the hat that she wears. I have to make sure she says this. I try not to do that. I try to just run my race and if they like it or if they don’t, whatever. I come in contact with a lot of underground rappers and it’s like when they were just doing them, they were good. But when they started getting in their heads like, I gotta get a deal and or something they [the people] can hear on the radio, they start trying to run in a lane with other people. And they become disposable. And now they sound like 50 other people on the radio. So I try not think about stuff like the packaging. I just try to make what I feel like is good music and hope my Spartans ride with me.

Check out Keys mixtape “The Infiltration” at http://www.datpiff.com/Keys__Infiltration.m123049.html or follow her on Twitter @ Keys_TheProblem.

PART

TWO(Read Part 1)

 

AllHipHop.com:  On the page preceding the opening chapter, you cite the

following quote from Edgar Cayce: “Heaven is not a place you go to, it is a

place you grow to.” Taken out of context, I would like to know when you first

stumbled upon that quote, as well as the immediate impact it had on you. And

then putting it back into context, I would like to know why you decided to open

your book with it.  What does that

particular quote mean to you?

KRS-One:  Well first of all, Edgar Cayce is the man. Straight up and

down. This dude, they used to call him “the sleeping prophet.” Most of the

quotes that are in the book are my attempts to guide hip hop to a further

spiritual or philosophical knowledge. So Edgar Cayce, right up at the top, is

telling you exactly where we are at. We are into psychic ability. We don’t

front on that. We are into speaking to the dead, speaking beyond time,

meditation, creative visualization, fasting, prayer; these things, we’re into

that. So, if you do research on Edgar Cayce, you’ll see right there where he’s

at, and you will already know what type of document this is, and what type of

politics, what type of spiritual paradigm I am coming from. On another level –

I’m going to be arrogant on this and say – real philosophers know about the

work of Edgar Cayce, number one. Number two, real American philosophers hide

the work of other American philosophers. Too many American-born philosophers

quote philosophers from Europe, quote philosophers from Asia, and quote people

from other times, too. The reason I put Edgar Cayce front-and-center is because

he’s from our time and he’s from the United States of America. Let’s start

right at home. Let’s start right here. These are the reasons. I believe in the

validity of the statement, “Heaven is not a place you go to. It is a place you

grow to.” That also tells you what the book is going to be about. Heaven is not

an abstract place. It is not far off. It is not unreal, an illusion of fantasy

or figment of your imagination. It’s not a cloud in the sky up in space. It’s

actually a state of mind. It’s not an illusionary state of mind, it’s actually

an adjusted state of mind where you can actually see heaven all around you.

Jesus spoke, and so many prophets spoke about heaven being laid out all around

us, but we just don’t see it because we don’t care to see it. So the point is

you’re going to live and grow to heaven. This is the first part. Second piece

of that is that it’s time for new knowledge. That’s what the Gospel

of Hip Hop is putting forward, anyway. It’s

time for new knowledge. It’s time for us to update the principles that we are

used to. Let us talk about growing to heaven, that heaven is a state of

spiritual maturity, not a place that you actually go to. That’s a slightly

different approach, but the hip hop approach, the way that we are all already

practicing heaven. In the inner cities, it’s just never been written down in

that sense. This is an urban philosophy, urban lifestyle. Our children will

call it a religion, but for us right now, it’s just a documentation of our

culture spiritually.

AllHipHop.com:  In addition to Edgar Cayce, you also quote the Honorable

Minister Louis Farrakhan on several occasions. One quote in particular struck

me very hard.  It’s kind of long,

but I’ll just cut to the chase.  In

a nutshell, Farrakhan talks about the importance of teachers and how the artist

plays an important role in society. 

In fact, he tells us: “The artist is the most important person!  YOU ARE THE TEACHAS!  The people listen to you, they don’t

listen to their preachers! 

Preacher’s day is done!” I thought that quote was really, really

interesting. What social responsibilities should artists have to the

communities they represent? Although you are quite clear in expressing what an

artist’s social responsibility should be, what do you think it will take to actually make them responsible?

KRS-One:  Well, you know, it’s interesting. When I heard Minister

Farrakhan say it, I was floored, because here you have a preacher. Minister

Farrakhan is a preacher, in every sense of the word. And here he is

acknowledging the truth. And the truth is hard. See, this is where it goes back

to philosophy. Sometimes the truth will even destroy you. And that’s why a lot

of people don’t want to really look at the truth. They want to skirt around —

and it’s cool, I mean, I’m not criticizing. But I am separating. I’m making a

separation here, quickly, between the analysis that you’re talking about and

where everybody else is coming from. First of all, we don’t quote American

philosophers. I had to stick Minister Farrakhan in there. As it was written,

this is not about anybody’s religion, at all. We respect everybody. I even

think that Satan has sinned there. Everybody gets respect. No doubt. Hip hop

stands independent, no doubt. However, there has been one dude that’s been in

our ear since…

AllHipHop.com:  …forever!

KRS-One:  Yeah, man! 

Since the ’70s. Forever, this dude’s been in our ear. Minister

Farrakhan!  Now keep in mind, too,

this is an elder. Minister Farrakhan’s been sick. He beat cancer. He’s always

getting criticized. His work was hard – death threats, all that s**t. And then

the Nation of Islam itself don’t let Minister Farrakhan start talking about the

internal structure of the Nation. He’s brutal, even with his own people. He’s a

leader. So, at the end of the day, I felt it fitting in a book like this that

goes down forever, and also is a book from the youth — like I’m the youth

compared to Minister Farrakhan – let’s start the book off with the dude that

Public Enemy rapped about, that Kane quoted, that we all heard and admired and

saw the struggle first-hand. And even if you don’t agree, you’ve got to agree

with this dude’s eye on hip hop. From day one, Minister Farrakhan’s been

pointing at us, telling us we are divine and we need to stop this nonsense.

Minister Farrakhan’s never pulled punches with hip hop. He’s called us out,

called cats out.  Big gangsta

dudes, he had them on their knees, crying. He had Ja Rule crying – straight up

and down! This is a man in our culture taking meetings and summits. Sad to say,

I ain’t see no Jews do that. I don’t see no Christians come like that. There’s

one Christian that I mention in the book. His name’s Clarence McClendon –

Bishop Clarence McClendon. I met him out in California. He was running a hip

hop church in California and was getting heat for it. And I went there and I

got saved in his church, right there.

AllHipHop.com:  Oh, wow!

KRS-One:  But I mention him in the book because he put out a thing

called The X Blessing. And he

talked about how biblically hip hop is the new way in the new world. And he, as

a Christian minister, this dude was saying, these dudes are going to come

smelling like weed with guns in their pockets, and we Christians are not going

to know how to deal with them. We’re not going to know. He was telling them:

“Get prepared. This is how God always works. It’s the least one, the one you

don’t expect, the one who looks like they bugging – that’s the one God’s gonna

pick and raise up.” I quoted his whole thing. That, too, is in the Gospel as

well. But that’s about it. Everybody else was dissing. And to get back to your

question about what’s the responsibility of the artist. Preacher’s day is done.

Of course you got to read into that, I mean, because the preachers day is not

done. It has only just begun. But what Minister Farrakhan is speaking to is

that old style — “We gonna make it.” Same old quotes. “No weapon formed

against me shall prosper.” Same old quote on the Muslim side. “All praise to

Allah.” Farrakhan says all that is over now. There’s a new day popping, and

everybody feels it, but very few people have the courage to step up in their

position because you’re going to get dissed by those who have to hold on to the

old power. And you’re going to get praised by those who are standing at the

door trying to get in. And so you’ve got to decide yourself in even putting a

gospel like that forward — which goes back to the question you posed about the

responsibility of the art. You’ve got to ask yourself the question: “Who am I?”

AllHipHop.com:  Yes!  It is a

question that many of us spend an entire lifetime trying to answer.KRS-One:  This is why your question is half-half for me. It’s yes and

no with this responsibility to the artist, because really to be honest with

you, it’s not even about the artist. It’s about the man or the woman. It’s

really about what type of person are you. And I honestly believe that you’ve

got to be ordained to do these things. Like to feel like a Poor Righteous Teacher

or a Public Enemy or to feel like any of X-Clan — that’s an inner thing. That’s

a thing that motivates you, like you as a man or as a woman are the type to not

let injustice go past you. You as a man, as a woman, cannot be bought or bribed

in that sense. So you’ve got to be a certain kind of person to want to help

people, to want to save people. I used to get criticized for that, too. They

said I had a savior complex. I was trying to be a messiah. I was starting a

cult when I mentioned the temple of hiphoppas. People were like, “Oh, Kris is

starting a cult.” And when I put out Spiritual Minded. Then it was: “Oh, Kris is a Christian, now.” And

when I started talking about hip hop building its own secret society. Folk

said: “Kris is with the Illuminati, now.” And I can imagine, what’s people

going to think now of the Gospel of Hip Hop? [laughing]

AllHipHop.com:  It’s enlightening to hear you say all of this, because I get

a lot of heat from people, because I’m really big on artist responsibility. I

know you said you were half and half on it, but when I had the chance to study

abroad in college, I was floored by how international audiences digest American

culture.  99% of the time, that is

the only way in which black people, and hip hop culture in general, are

introduced to the world – through multimedia.  No disrespect to Charles Barkley and other superstars who

use the recycled — “I’m not a role model. That’s not my responsibility.” –

line. But I feel that once you have elevated yourself via some platform and you

make your life work available for mass consumption, you have to embrace that

and say, “I am a role model even if I don’t want to be.” So, with all that

being said, there is a quote in the Gospel of Hip Hop where you breakdown and create an acronym for the

word sin – selfish,

inconsiderate, needs. There are a lot of artists out there who are claiming,

“I’m the best rapper alive. I’m the best rapper ever.” But I don’t really feel

like the product they’re putting out is changing lives. It’s selling albums,

but I don’t really feel like it’s making the type of music that would inspire

social or political change. So when I look at an artist like yourself, who

doesn’t have that commercial success, but for some reason, people are coming

back to you and doling out mounds of critical acclaim, what does that say?

KRS-One:  Well, to be perfectly honest, the music doesn’t match the

statement. Your music is not matching your claims. And this is what the issue

really is.