The Black Eyed Peas are large. Love them or hate ’em, BEP is on top. This crew went from being underground b-boyin’ MC’s to moving multi-platinum units and achieving multi-cultural success on several continents. In between all the hits these guys have been doing music for cartoons like Samurai Jack and Dexter’s Laboratory, as well as major endorsement deals. Ironically, as underground champion, MF Doom is being praised for his successes, the Black Eyed Peas have been ostracized for theirs.

Will.I.Am feels your scorn. He knows about it, and he speaks on it with AllHipHop.com. Between chilling with the Music Department at M.I.T. in Boston, Will keeps it funky – like his hero, James Brown.

AllHipHop.com: Black Eyed Peas have a made party rocking a consistent theme in their music. A lot of MC’s have forgotten that angle. What made you focus on it?

Will: Because the era of Hip Hop that we are influenced by, from 1987 to 1994- that’s what that era was about. From Shinehead, to Redhead Kingpin, to N.W.A., to Mix Master S####, Big Daddy Kane, – that’s the era that we come from. To me, that’s when Hip-Hop was pure.

AllHipHop.com: Did you expect Monkey Business to get the high acclaim that it has received?

Will: Monkey Business, yeah. But Elephunk, no. The first two records I was just being creative – like, “Whatever.” I was just happy to have a record deal. I was just felt blessed and was happy to tour. Honestly, we thought Elephunk was going to be our last record. So, we went into the studio like -Whatever we ever wanted to do on a record, let’s do it now. Let’s say everything we ever wanted to say. Because the world is f**ked up right now.” So, we made a record called, “Where is the Love” around the time America was at its lowest point. America was at a tender, most sensitive time and we talked about the CIA and the KKK on the same record. It got played all over the place. We had a message-hit on Top 50 radio. We did not even plan to do that. If someone said, “Hey lets make a jam to get played all over the radio” I would never have said that. But it happened. It just totally opened my mind up to Monkey Business. [This album] was made on my laptop on airplanes. At the time, we were traveling the world on Elephunk. “Where is the Love”, “Let’s Get Retarded” and “Hey Mama” was huge all over the planet. We were doing shows in Vietnam, Lithuania, Brazil, Japan, South Korea, Philippines – all over the planet. I was thinkin’ like “When are we gonna make a record? ‘Cause if we keep touring, we’ll never make a record.” So I was doing it on the airplane, trying to feed the whole market at the same time. I wanna make an album that’s gonna have songs that are relevant to every single country we are hitting at once.

AllHipHop.com:: You have a unique way of bridging the old and the new school vibes. Like with the “Pump It Louder” chants and the “I wonder if I take you home baby,” the Egyptian Lover basslines and stuff.

Will: The “Pump It Louder” came actually from one of Hammer?s old groups [Oaktown?s] 3-5-7. Remember that song “Juicy Got ?em Crazy”?

AllHipHop.com: I live in the Bay, man. So I heard that all day. Folks was playin’ that all the time in the Bay.

Will: Hammer was killin’ it back in the day. N***as can hate all they want. It was different. You were not supposed to compare him to Rakim. It was a totally different thing. It’s like tyring to compare a Hummer to a Lamborghini. You can take a Lamborghini into the mountains and expect it to perform. This is a vehicle designed by Black people- Hip-Hop. N***as was trying to compare that to a Hummer. It ain’t a Hummer dog, it’s a Lamborghini- applaud it. Look how fast it goes! That’s was wong with Hip-Hop right now. People don’t understand its legacy and all the cars that it has. They keep trying to compare it to the same vehicle. It’s like “No n***a, Hip-Hop ain’t just a muthaf**kin’ Ford Taurus. We got Jaguars, Cadillacs- it ain’t just one f**king car!”

AllHipHop.com: Tell me your greatest international Hip-Hop experience, and how all the traveling affects how you see Hip-Hop?

Will: The biggest one is when we landed in the Philippines. When we get down, every news crew possible is there documenting the landing. We get off the airplane. and the news crews come and rush us. We get the hotel and turn on the TV. There is a four-hour special on Apple’s life, and it ends with the crew’s documenting of our landing. They were shooting till the moment we landed, and then went in and edited that footage in. The next day, we did a show in front of 30,000 people, and they have the army in front holding the people back with the President in the middle! Every time Apple goes back to the Philippines, there’s a news crew. He’s bigger than any government official in the Philippines. That’s nutty.

AllHipHop.com: It’s real crazy to me how accelerated your careers moved. What has been the easiest and the hardest adjustments to make for you?

Will: That hardest thing to adjust to, is the disrespect. We accomplishing a bunch of things. But, because nobody gave birth to us – Like,

“Yo, we came from this camp, or that camp.” Jay-Z, Puffy, Suge Knight did not put us on. We did not come from nobody. So, because a mega-figure did not put us on, it seems like nobody can really relate. That’s been the hardest part for me as a Black person. BET and The Source only cover one style of Hip-Hop. The hardest part is Black people not being able to relate to another Black person who has done a lot globally. The easiest thing is all that bodyguard s**t! I don’t need that stuff.

AllHipHop.com: One of the things I liked about this album was that you had James Brown on there. I wish more rap artists would do more songs with him since his music plays a large part of Hip-Hop’s foundation. It’s like you and Afrika Bambaataa are the only ones!

Will: Actually, a lot of rappers wanna work with James Brown. The thing is, he does not wanna work with them. We were in London at [an] awards [show]. I walked up to James Brown. I said, “Thank you for all that you did for Hip-Hop. You may not know it or realize it, but Hip-Hop would not be what it is, without it.” So, I asked him the most daring question “You think we could do a song with you?” He said, “Send me a reference for what you want me to do, and I’ll do it.” So I go to the studio. James comes the next day with his whole crew. He pulls me aside and he says, “Ya know, Mr. Will, I don’t got to work with nobody. But something tells me to work with the Black Eyed Peas. But I like how y’all do what y’all do. Y’all got the band. In Hip-Hop music you don’t see enough of that.” So, we started talking. I started talking to him about Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr. and Elijah Muhammad. He knew all of them personally. I mean there are not that many people that have seen as many things as he has seen back in the day that’s still alive. I asked him what’s the difference between Black America today and Black America back in the day. He said, “Black America today is fighting a fight that we [the older generation] fought. Y’all ain’t got nothin’ to fight about, and it shows in y’all music.” That blew my mind.

He said “I appreciate the fact that you took the time to write songs like, “Where is the Love”. That’s brave. But I don’t work with nobody because I don’t got to.” We had to do a benefit in Los Angeles, I called him a week before to come perform and he showed up. His manager was like, “He does not do this for anybody.

”

AllHipHop.com: I also notice you got a track with Sting. I’m a serious Sting fan and I love “Englishman in New York.” Talk to me about how that song came together.

Will: I did two remixes for one of Sting’s records. Apple was tellin’ me, “Yo, I want to sample “Englishman in New York”. I was like, “Really?” I asked [Sting], and he was like, “I’d love to.” So, he flies out to Berlin and we record the song in Hitler’s old studio for recording propaganda records. It’s all the original equipment from when it was originally put in. So we recorded a song called “Union”. It’s weird because we’re talking about the opposite of what Hitler was talking about- in the same studio.

AllHipHop.com: What was it like to record in that room?

Will: It was mad eerie. You don’t understand how big this facility is. They gotta room as big as a basketball court- that’s just filled with organ pipes and one organ. It’s bigger than any basket ball gym. It’s just got organ pipes and microphones in it. This facility is huge. A couple months ago and Fergie was singin’ on the mic and I said, “What kind of mic is that?” The guy’s like “This mic was made specifically for Hitler.”

AllHipHop.com: Wow. One thing is that y’all did a posse cut with Q-Tip, Talib Kweli, and some other raw dudes. I think your critics aren’t hearing these songs. Tell me how that track was made.

Will: Whoooo!! We just shot the video for that. We did that track on the internet. Talib was in Cincinnati, Cee-Lo was in Atlanta, John Legend was in D.C., I was in Los Angeles and Q-tip was in New York. It was all done with computers.

AllHipHop.com: How did you feel when the song was done?

Will: It reminded me of something from Low End Theory or Midnight Marauders.

AllHipHop.com: If you could clarify one major misconception about the Black Eyed Peas right now- what would it be?

Will: That the BEP is not Hip-Hop. BET don?t wanna own it. VIBE don?t wanna own it. Some try to make it seem like we are not Hip-Hop. But we are. ‘Cause I’ll battle any n***a in a freestyle. I’ll take a lotta n***as out too!

Adisa Banjoko is the author to the upcoming book “Lyrical Swords Vol. 2: Westside Rebellion”. For more info visit www.lyricalswords.com !

XXL has had a banner year. From a comprehensive expose of Jay-Z’s move to the Carter Administration, to a plethora of XL ratings on numerous major and indie releases, now to their very own CD, 2005 watched XXL fly high. However, some critics argue that if Interscope Records is doing good, it’s only natural that XXL would follow suit. The magazine’s Founder and Editor-In-Chief, Elliott Wilson isn’t dodging any criticism or questions.

The controversy bleeds onto XXL Raps the forthcoming compilation that may connect budding Hip-Hop fans to the top-selling music mag. In a conversation with AllHipHop.com, Elliott Wilson sheds light on this plan, speaks on the controversy, and even reveals his early role in 50 Cent’s success. If that wasn’t enough, wait till you read what’s happening with Ego Trip’s Race-O-Rama, which will pull everybody in, even the girl that’s still watchin’ Channel Zero. This feature is extra extra large!

AllHipHop.com: It’s been years since XXL has established itself comfortably. Putting out a CD probably isn’t a hard thing – then, or now. What about 2005 let you know it was time?

Elliott Wilson: Wow, that’s a good question. It just felt right. We wanted to move slowly with stuff. We didn’t want to come out the gate. To me, we had to build an audience, build credibility, build the readership. I think, a lot of times, magazines will try to come out and right away [get above themselves.] Back in the day, we were like, “These are the greatest MC’s” – [we did] something controversial in order to get people to read your magazine. I don’t know, we’ve been grindin’ for six years. It’s a certain point where I can honestly say that we’re the number one magazine. The ABC Audit, which proves the numbers – our Soundscan, it says it. We’re number one – the top selling – not just Hip-Hop magazine, but music magazine on newstands. Now it’s time to really expand the brand.

AllHipHop.com: The last Hip-Hop project I can recall Razor & Tie Records being a part of was Prince Paul’s Politics of Business. Why did you go there?

Elliott Wilson: They’re an indie on the other side of the game. Not signing with a major, I don’t have to do favors for anybody. I don’t have to promise nobody no covers – getting their songs, or anything like that. I can be out here, and if you don’t wanna give me a song, don’t give me a song. I’mma find a way to put together a good enough album. The thing with Razor & Tie that’s good is that they have a lot of ties with TV exposure, which is good. They buy a lot of TV [advertising] time. That, to me, is gonna help sell my brand, XXL, to people who really don’t know about it yet. There may be a kid who only bought the issue that had Eminem or 50 on the cover. That kid is getting hit in the head – “XXL, oh s**t, I’ve heard about this. Okay.”

AllHipHop.com: You’ve got a nice crash-course of mainstream Hip-Hop in 2005 on this compilation. Certainly, people are missing. But are you trying to archive this period in time as well?

Elliott Wilson: Yeah, it’s actually the last year and year and half. I’ve got a Fabolous song on there called “Ghetto” that was on his last album. Some of it’s slept-on. What happens is – the biggest albums out now are the Now That’s What I Call Music volumes. That is shared by all the major labels, and they sort of pass that around to each other. What happens now is, you can’t really clear singles that well. What they call it is ‘holdbacks’ – and they hold the song to see if they can get it on a Now compilation. So I got banged in the head that we can’t play the single game. So let’s try to pick that rare banger – that album cut – Paul Wall’s “Trill” or David Banner and B.G.’s “Bloody War.” To me, that gave the album a harder edge. It made it the anti-compilation. Compilations are usually very Pop because it’s the big records that you hear over and over. Why should I put “Gold Digger” on a compilation when you gonna hear it on the radio 85 times? The Now series is basically White people mixtapes for middle-America. We live in this iPod generation – these songs are basically [a playlist of what] I think are dope.

AllHipHop.com: Did you do this alone or with your staff?

Elliott Wilson: It was all me [laughs]. But you know what, like I said, “Bloody War” with David Banner and B.G. – my Editor, Vanessa [Satten] loves Banner. I kept things like that in mind. But no, I hand-picked all the songs. My staff is busy making this magazine. It was a long, tedious process too. It took about a year to put it all together. I didn’t want them to get bogged down. I got a chance to sequence the album too. I feel like it flows good from beginning to end. I’m a real Hip-Hop fan. I grab stuff off the mixtapes every day and sequence them my way.

AllHipHop.com: Okay, since you’re mentioning that the sequence was your call – middle-America probably won’t pick up on it, but it’s pretty explicit – but you open with five consecutive G-Unit related songs on the album…

Elliott Wilson: I know where you’re going… [laughing] Okay, well the thing with G-Unit is, I had a 50 song, a Banks song, a Buck, and a Yayo. It’s like… when I listened to the songs and thought where they’d fall together – my first instinct was to separate them. I felt in the best interest, it really wasn’t sequencing properly. Their sound has a certain feel. I knew right away that I liked the record starting with “Evil Deeds” – kinda the way Em’s album starts, I like that energy. I felt “Ski Mask Way” was my one-two punch. It’s the Clive Davis A&R [theory]. They’re the two biggest motherf**kas, the two songs are their songs. That’s the way Clive Davis used to A&R back at Arista. He was big on putting the big records at the beginning of the record. Boom boom. Then I went to one of the G-Unit concerts at the [Madison Square] Garden, and I was like, “That energy is crazy. You know what? That’s really the feeling I’m going for. I wanna keep that energy up.” That crew is the hot crew right now. Hate it or love it, I felt like it flowed better. Boom boom boom boom. Also, it would make the haters mad too. I’ve always said, I’m not ashamed to support the artists that I think are dope. If they’re signed to Interscope, they’re signed to Interscope. I’m not owned by Interscope or Jimmy Iovine. I had to fight for clearances on these songs, like any songs.

AllHipHop.com: To look at the history, were you also the A&R for the Ego Trip’s Big Playback album?

Elliott Wilson: No, the Ego Trip’s Big Playback album – my boy, Chairman Mao did that one. I had a little bit of input. But he definitely put that record together more than the rest of us. [laughs]

AllHipHop.com: I’m always glued to your Editor-In-Chief letter each issue in XXL. For a letter to people who hopefully just supported your brand, you talk a lot of s**t in there sometimes to the reader. When you write that letter each month, who do you pretend you’re writing to?

Elliott Wilson: [laughs] I mean, it just comes out of me, man – whatever’s been goin’ on in my life that last month. Especially, the last week or so before. If I’m mad, I’m happy, it comes across. If I’m love, it comes across. If I hate someone, it comes across. People are gonna take it how they gonna take it. In the beginning, it was a bragadocious, “I wanna be number one. It’s obvious who’s number one magazine out here. I’m the new jack. I wanna take their spot and be number one.” That became the prevailing theme. I went after them crazy until it changed. I felt the torch was passed, then it became something else. Now it’s like industry battles behind the scenes, or just what’s going on in my life. I’m happy that people care enough to read it. I never felt anybody read an Editor’s Letter, so I’mma do the things that they say you’re not supposed to do – mention your competition, mention industry people in negative way, all that stuff.

AllHipHop.com: Hip-Hop magazine staffs seem to be changing a lot right now. Lots of revolving doors. Tell me about your staff at XXL…

Elliot Wilson: That’s the key to my success. That gets lost a lot in the hype and battles. I have a great, dedicated staff. Vanessa Satten and Bonsu Thompson were with me from day one. We’ve added people, and very few people have left. We have a devoted team who has worked together for several years. That’s key to me. You develop chemistry. I value my people – their skills and loyalty. I try to be competitive with raises enough to keep them happy, financially – but also empower them on a business level, to make decisions. If you talk to rappers and industry people, they’ll say, “I never speak to Elliott. I don’t know who Elliott is.” That’s ’cause I empower my team, and you have to go through my team to get to me. I definitely have the best staff in the game.

AllHipHop.com: The lifeline of a Hip-Hop journalist is very short. Do you hope to change that with this vision?

Elliott Wilson: I think I’ve always extended it by doing different things. I still have Ego Trip which started out as a magazine which I co-founded with my partner, Sacha Jenkins, and it evolved into books, and now television. Ego Trip is doing big things in the TV world. We’re trying to get more shows and just be on TV with more regularity, instead of just having these specials every once in a while. We feel like Dave Chappelle sort of opened a lot of doors for race humor. That’s our forte. Our humor is a little different from Dave’s – but we’re funny too. We’re not really the persons in front of the camera, but why not be the next Saturday Night Live and recruit these young, talented comics. I love magazines, man. I wanna create more magazines. I had this magazine, Hip-Hop Soul a while back, a R&B magazine, I’m thinkin’ ’bout relaunching that. I just wanna prove that not only can I make XXL number one, but that I create other successful magazines. I’m blessed right now.

AllHipHop.com: Every music journalist has a story of changing an artist’s career. What’s yours?

Elliott Wilson: I got one. It also leads into my alleged corruption from Interscope. People talk about 50 Cent always being on the cover. There’s a lot of reasons. One of the reasons is because I gave him a big five-page story before he even signed to Eminem. Kris Ex was a guy who had been cool with Sha Money XL, and he liked 50 and was connected to 50. 50 started putting out those early mixtapes – [many of which were] shot by this [photographer] who used to work for XXL. We did this feature before the mixtapes even really came out. Even in his MTV book, Kris Ex ended up doing his book. In the book, Fif says that we were the first national magazine to give him that kind of love. What it was, was when I was at [The Source], you had to put things in different categories. You couldn’t just do a five-page feature on a new artist. But this is XXL. There’s no rules here. That definitely helped his career – the foundation was set. Artists remember that first look. The reward was that he signed with Eminem and Interscope, who at the time, we had a feud with. That helped bridge that gap. 50 was like, “What’s wrong with XXL? Those dudes are good.”

AllHipHop.com: Lastly, being the competitive dude that you are – if Steve Stoute or Jay-Z ends up buying The Source, then what happens?

Elliott Wilson: Oh, I’d crush ’em. Come on! [laughs] I don’t care who’s runnin’ it. I took the crown, I’m not givin’ it back. It fits nice on my head. It leans to the side. [laughs]

Over the years, people have come up with more than a few different recipes for success. But one thing that is always included is perseverance, believing that, some day, your efforts will pay off. Despite only being in his mid-twenties, DJ Don Cannon, knows a thing or two about perseverance; probably more than many of his peers. One of the founding members of Atlanta-based DJ collective The Aphilliates, Cannon also has a passion for music, which he has quietly expressed through his production company for many years.

Then almost overnight, the time came for the world to see that Don Cannon’s skills on the boards more than matched his skills as a turntablist. Atlanta’s Rookie of the Year received a 32-bar co-sign from Brooklyn’s favorite semi-retired native son, and the world went crazy. But as Don Cannon explains to AllHipHop.com, this moment was almost 20 years in the making. Go do your research!

AllHipHop.com: Are y’all still doing the show on Sirius Satellite radio?

Don Cannon: Yeah, it’s on Shade 45, that’s Eminem’s channel. Friday nights 8-10PM, you can catch all the hot music nobody else has, ’cause we are in touch with the artists and they do things for us and we get the music first. So you know, that’s a hot show. And then we got Gangsta Grillz Radio in Atlanta on Hot 107.9. Me, [DJ] Drama and Sense. The only show in Atlanta that can play what they wanna play. It’s from 8-10PM on Saturday nights. It’s got a new twist to it, ’cause it’s not really a mixshow. The second hour’s a mixshow, where I go on. From 9-10, I play some of the hottest joints that I think is hot, that they think is hot. The first hour is pretty much regular radio, where we play joints, exclusives. So you would have to hear it to know the format. Like, I’m really scratching and blending and all that good stuff in the second hour. But the first hour is pretty much just playing the songs from the station and doing the drops along with it.

AllHipHop.com: So how does one start DJing at five years old?

Don Cannon: I was always into music, from what my mom showed me. She used to videotape me when I was two or three years old. She bought me my first record player when I was three, and I just played the little records on there. My uncle, for Christmas, instead of buying me toys, he bought me Michael Jackson/Jackson 5 “Can You Feel It.” My uncle was doing mixtapes back then, like, just stuff for people around the way, and like clubs on New Year’s Eve. And I used to talk on the beginning of it. And the older people used to laugh at it, so my uncle was like, “Well, I’mma take you to the parties.” So he used to take me to the parties, late night, the New Year’s and Christmas parties at real, real clubs, and I would be on the mic just talking, and they would be like, “That dude is crazy! He’s like five years old on the mic.” That’s just how it happened, and pretty much, just had some tapes floating around. I was just talking on them, saying crazy stuff, like “Microphone, microphone” [laughs], like little kid stuff, I couldn’t talk! But I didn’t believe it when my mom told me, ’cause you can’t remember when you’re that young. But you remember BETA tapes? She had me on BETA tapes. Got pictures of when I was DJing, all kind of stuff.

AllHipHop.com: What did you first beat sound like? Do you still have it?

Don Cannon: Nah. I don’t have none of the beats I did from 18-years-old down. My first beat, I had this Kid N’ Play record, it was called “Gettin’ Funky.” I just played it backwards. That was my first beat. I would make pause tapes.br>

AllHipHop.com: When you made this beat and you sent it over to Jeezy, did you have any idea that this song was gonna be that crazy?

Don Cannon: I usually treat my beats like I’m making a baby. I hold on to my beats pretty tightly, I work on them for hours and hours, doing different things. But I never mix it, I never do anything. I just make it plain, put it to CD, save it to disk, keep it cool. I had that beat, and it was sitting there for like a year maybe. Willie [The Kid], who’s still my artist – he got on the beat first and he had somebody out of town, coincidentally, got on the beat with him one summer, and I just held it. Then Drama said he was gonna do a mixtape with T.I., do I have any beats? And I just gave him a beat tape. And he picked the beat. Everybody liked it on the T.I. joint, but nobody really paid attention. T.I. really, he liked the beat, but it was really more of a freestyle thing, I don’t think that he was thinking in song mode. One day, me and Drama was doing [Club] 112, and I played that song like five times in a row, and everybody was jamming. And it just coincidentally happened to be Jeezy’s mixtape release party for [Gangsta Grillz] Streets is Watching. And I just kept playing the T.I. [freestyle]. And I just kept running it back like, “Y’all don’t understand what this is!” I just kept playing it.

AllHipHop.com: How did the Jay-Z remix come about?

Don Cannon: Coach called me one day, he was like, “Look, I’m going to New York. I’m shopping some songs up there to Def Jam. And I was just playing like four, five joints for Jay-Z.” And he said he played four, five joints, Jay-Z was like, “All these records is crazy, they hot as hell.” Then they said, I think my record was one of the last records they played for him. And they said Jay-Z just stood up, “What’s that? I’m getting on that! That’s crazy!” I think a month or two months later, he sent the joint back to Coach. He went to the studio and did the joint. He did not only one verse, but two verses. He did 32 bars. But they wasn’t supposed to tell me. So Drama said, “I got a surprise for you: Jay-Z got on the record.”

AllHipHop.com: What was your initial reaction when he told you?

Don Cannon: That being my favorite rapper, that’s like, what else could happen to you? Your first beat out, your favorite rapper got on it. That’s crazy! It’s kinda like, me and Drama be talking all the time: we grew up listening to a lot of artist, and then you get a call from that same artist like, six seven years later. Like, I was listening to Ma$e in ’97, and he was the biggest thing in the world. I know him now. It’s weird. Same thing with Ghostface, same thing with… just a lot of these artists. I used to listen to Keith Murray all through High School. I come down to Atlanta, four or five years grinding; and my first Hip-Hop CD, he host it. People wanted the [Jay-Z] record so damn bad, they wound up hacking it. And a hacker sent it to me. I was like, “Damn! I’mma hear my record first from a hacker!”

AllHipHop.com: From that, has anybody started reaching out to you wanting that next Don Cannon banger?

Don Cannon: You know, the first order is, “Let me get a ‘Go Crazy!’” That’s wack. Instead of, “Yo, I wanna get a beat CD from you.” I got a lot of calls, but some of them were stalkers, some of them just wanted to find out… So I changed my number. The people I been getting lately have been legit. I been working with Ma$e. We did a joint for Tango Red, which is out on Warner Brothers, that he did the beat for, I arranged it. I got some stuff to Scrappy, of course; Bohagon, of course. Slick Pulla, which is a new artist under Jeezy’s label, I did some joints for him. Lupe Fiasco; I sent some records to Saigon. I got a couple big people I’m trying to stay away from saying they names, ’cause I’m still at a happy stage where I be like, “I don’t wanna jinx that!” But I’m also excited about the little dudes too. Which, It may seem like it, but the rap game doesn’t have, is a lot of people that’s breaking through. I like to help out the little dudes too, like a SunN.Y. that’s on So So Def; I got some joints with T. Waters who’s on So So Def. It’s a lot of new people, I like to work with a lot of new people.

Sadat X has stayed relevant to Hip-Hop for fifteen years. Outside of his legendary status with Brand Nubian, the New Rochelle MC has made classics such as “The Lump Lump” and “1-9-9-9” on his solo endeavors. In 2005, he was courted by Missy Elliot and Beanie Sigel to appear on major label releases ages after One For All. If you’re looking for lasting power, look no further.

Experience and Education has gotten Sadat X a long way. Perhaps that’s why the MC titled his latest album. Party songs, to social issues, and conceptual tracks make up the album, heavy on collaborations. AllHipHop.com wanted to look at Sadat’s motivation, his vision on New York Hip-Hop, and his little known career as a teacher and as a two-guard. Funny how the ball bounces…

AllHipHop.com: With over a decade in the music industry, do you consider yourself coming full circle with this new album?

Sadat X: With this album, I’m just trying to reach my old fans and my new fans too. I’ve always done side projects, and I’m still first and foremost a part of Brand Nubian. But I had a lot of music in me, so I just wanted to get that out. A lot of times in the past when I’ve done [solo] albums, people have always suggested beats and ideas I should use, but this time I did everything 100% myself.

AllHipHop.com: Your new album shares its title, Education and Experience with a book by the same name, care to explain?

Sadat X: Well, I was taking a summer course at College of New Rochelle, and one of the required readings was by Herman Hess, and he has a book by the same name.

AllHipHop.com: I noticed Purple City’s Agallah is on three of your new album’s tracks – why three tracks with Agallah, and not Lord Jamar or Grand Puba from Brand Nubian?

Sadat X: Actually, I had planned to do some work with Brand Nubian. But I was at another label [Mad Records] and things didn’t go as planned. Soon after, I got with Female Fun Records, and we were able to get distribution from Studio One. Once we got distribution, they wanted to release the album so I was unable to do any new songs.

AllHipHop.com: What prompted “The Daily News”?

Sadat X: I just read the paper on that particular day, October 22, 2004, and rhymed about stuff in the paper that happened that day. Just from page to page.

AllHipHop.com: On this album, you write extensively on you and New York City being remembered, why?

Sadat X: Well, a lot of musical trends are getting away from New York, to the South and West, and I just wanted people to remind people that New York is still a valuable force in this game; we’re the originators. I just wanted to remind people that New York is still on the map.

AllHipHop.com: What needs to change for the New York Hip-Hop scene to thrive again?

Sadat X: Different regions show love when artists from their areas come out, and I would like to see that same support from the fans for New York artists. We just need to support our own.

AllHipHop.com: Diamond D oversaw a lot of your production in the past, and even has a joint on this. Other collaborators have faded. What has kept you two working together all these years?

Sadat X: Musically, we have a bond. He’s a personal friend. I’ve known Diamond for over 15 years.

AllHipHop.com: I had the chance to see Brand Nubian [minus DJ Alamo] this past summer at the Brooklyn Hip-Hop Fest. Not to discredit the other acts, but many concertgoers I spoke to, came out on the strength that your group headlined the show. How does that make you feel?

AllHipHop.com: That makes us feel good, because it lets us know that people out there still want to hear Brand Nubian, and it inspires us to continue making music. We just try to stay current.

AllHipHop.com: Regarding veteran rappers and staying current, you were once quoted saying “If you [veteran rappers] want to hate on somebody, hate on your parents for having you too soon.” What are your feelings on this topic now?

Sadat X: Well, a lot of older rappers feel that the younger generation owes them something, and they really don’t. I think the younger generation would show the old school love if they make some stuff that sounds good instead of keeping that old-school formula. You can’t do that because the times change. You have to align yourself with young people, find out what they are listening to and find your slot.

AllHipHop.com: Mainstream artists like Missy and Beanie Sigel who have showed you a lot of love this year. Do you think the mainstream is embracing consciousness once more?

Sadat X: We’re flattered, and it’s all good. As far as artists, the cycle comes back around and a lot of people just choose to talk about reality, as opposed to talking about what the average person can’t relate to. There’s a lot more people who are average instead of rich and somebody has to address those problems.

AllHipHop.com: Part of that may be that your style and the subject matter you discuss portray you as a regular guy. Not overly conscious or gangster, you’re a regular guy with skills. Do you think that this is something missing in Hip-Hop today?

Sadat X: Oh yeah, it’s missing because a lot of people are following what they think sounds good. They feel like that’s what America wants, but now I think a lot of people are going back to the “regular person” and the reality of things. There are alot of problems going on in the world that people are addressing, and I think now that’s the trend.

AllHipHop.com: As a listener, I noticed that a lot of your songs and verses, such as “The Lump Lump” and your verse on “Don’t Let it Go to Your Head” are directed toward females. Why is that?

Sadat X: It’s not intentional; it just comes out that way. But I admit, sometimes I do do that.

AllHipHop.com: I read once that you don’t consider yourself underground or commercial; that you feel you are right in the middle. Do you think that this has contributed to your ease of being able to record with mainstream cats like Jay-Z, or the Neptunes, as well as appreciate and work with folks who are considered underground like DJ Spinna, or Geology.

Sadat X: Yeah, I’m right in the middle ’cause I’m not the high-end of flashiness or bling-bling but I’m not an underground-backpack rapper either. I’m somewhere in the middle, the average man’s rapper. I think people recognize me as being down-to-earth and they feel like if they see me, they can approach me, which is how I want it to be.

AllHipHop.com: A lot of people don’t know that you taught 6th grade. What led you to wanting to be a teacher? Are you still teaching?

Sadat X: Currently, I am on sabbatical to work on music and do shows. But I’ve always been involved with kids in the community and coach kids’ basketball as well. So I just felt like teaching was another way I could further use my talents.

You recently appeared on Beanie Siegel’s last album The B. Coming and have continued to stay visible through the many collabos you have done throughout the years with Big L, Biggie, and even Jay-Z. Whose music are you currently feeling in Hip-Hop right now?

Sadat X: I’m feeling Young Jeezy, [Juelz] Santana and those cats, but I keep it open. I’m definitely not close-minded when it comes to the music.

AllHipHop.com: I also understand you were a star point guard at Howard University, played in streetball tournaments and you currently coach for the New York City Basketball League. Basketball seems to play just as big a part in your life as Hip-Hop music. Did you ever flirt with the idea of going pro?

Sadat X: No, because at some point you realize how good you are, and I realized I wasn’t going pro. I knew I was good, but I wasn’t a professional. I would have loved to have gone pro and played for The Knicks but I knew that wasn’t where I was headed.

AllHipHop.com: Who’s going to win the 1 on 1 tournament this year, you or Mase?

Sadat X: Probably Mase [laughs]. I just stick to the coaching.

When the legendary Bay Area crew Hieroglyphics as first formed, Jive asked me to write Casual’s bio. I went to meet him at Domino’s house, suprised to meet a tall, semi-husky kid playing Shinobi, on a video game console. Those were different times.

Now fast forward a decade and some change.

When AllHipHop.com called me to interview Casual for his new Smash Rockwell LP, I was all for it. I had not seen him in many years.

I went to the Hiero hideout and saw all the usual suspects: Toure, Tajai, and Domino. But when I saw Casual, he was… a man. I’m watching him chill with his baby girl. I’m watching him move, the words he chooses and it’s apparent that Casual, has matured not only lyricaly, but physically and mentally.

This mental maturity played out tough on the chess board. The Bishop and Smash Rockwell did battle on the 64 squares of eternal combat. A disputed victory leaning toward Smash was the outcome with both of us unsatisfied, we decided a future battle is necessary.

In this AllHipHop.com feature, we talk about the evolution of Casual becoming Smash Rockwell, and the struggle to balance your battle skills with your track writing ability.

AllHipHop.com: So Casual, why the new name? Where did it come from? It’s catchy…

Smash Rockwell: It’s been like four years since I dropped my last album. This is a name all my homeboys gave me. ‘Cause I be smashin’ on fools. I wanted to give the world a more personal side to Casual. Then I did the Handsome Boy Modeling School’s [So How’s Your Girl?] LP, and got to chill with Chest Rockwell [Prince Paul]. He was like, “You Smash, and you rock well.” So, Smash Rockwell.

AllHipHop.com: I remember when you used to be on the Bay Area TV show Home Turf in the early 90’s, with Dominique Di Prima. It amazes me how much you’ve grown. At that time, E-40 and 415 were doing their thing but you guys were in different camps. I used to wonder what it’d be like if you guys would do songs together. Now on this album, y’all doin’ songs together.

Smash Rockwell: Richie Rich, Too Short, G Stack and E Mack. It’s called “Oaktown.” It’s basically a tribute to Oakland, and we reppin’ our area. But to get back to what you was sayin’ – I wanted to do jams like this back in those days too. But our genres were too divided. Not our lifestyles- we both live in the Bay. We’d be seein’ each other at the parties. But when it came down to business, we were selling music to two different kinds of people. Those two crowds were not ready to mingle yet.

AllHipHop.com: What was it like recording with Too Short?

Smash Rockwell: I was on the Too Short compilation Nation Wide. He put it in the air that he was open to workin’ with me. So, I knew it would come together. We recorded that in San Francisco. Everybody made it to the initial recording, but Rich.

AllHipHop.com: Tell me about the E-40 jam, “Nickel & Dime Gangsta.” That’s another one of my favorites…

Smash Rockwell: That’s another dude who I feel like- a lot of my fans don?t have a high awareness of his skills. I wanted them to see that. He’s a legend. It was fun. That was an internet joint. We did that through the internet. I mean, I see E-40 all the time. But when we recorded this, me, Jake [One], and 40 did it all online.

AllHipHop.com: Your ability to mix comedy and tragedy is impressive. You have a line on that song where it says “Please don’t make me call them hitters out to handle you dudes/ Have ya family holdin’ candles on the Channel 2 news/ You could be hurt, You’ll be the next block’s next dead homie t-shirt.”…

Smash Rockwell: I’ve seen too much goin’ on. We don’t even realize we making deities out of our peers. Everybody gonna die. I’d rather give my life than have it be taken for something foul. Being a nickel and dime gangsta just means you keep your hustle up. When you broke, don’t get discouraged. You gotta keep it smashin’ no matter what.

AllHipHop.com: I think that the entire Hieroglyphics crew really breaks the mold on the myth that battle rappers can’t write songs.

Smash Rockwell: It’s like, we don’t do that, without sacrifice. You have to balance between being a great battle rapper, and a great song writer. The more time you spend trying to write a song, the less time you spend free styling and coming off the top. It’s like Jordan. Freestyle is like jumping from the free throw line. Writing a song is like shooting that jumper. I been tryin’ to match my freestyle skills with my writing the majority of my career. I want to freestyle as good as I write. Others might wanna write as good as you freestyle. After Jigga said he don’t write no more, I know hecka dudes that stopped writing.

Adisa Banjoko is author of the new book “Lyrical Swords Vol. 1: Hip Hop and Politics in the Mix.” Visit www.lyricalswords.com for more info.