LadyValentine

0 Cent Interviews Talib XXL Aug 2003
XXL August 2003 pgs 102-108

Konexion
What Happens when hip-hop’s real bad boy hooks up with the game’s most righteous voice? Thugs and backpacker’s unite: 50 Cent has the questions, Talib Kweli has the answers

As the guest editor of XXL’s 50th issue, 50 Cent was eager to experience life on the other side of the microphone- to ask the questions instead of answering them, his big chance to be a music journalist rather than a rap superstar. (We offered to trade salaries for a month, too. But he turned us down.) His choice of interview subject surprised us: Brooklyn MC Talib Kweli. We shouldn’t have been so surprised, really. After all, G-Unit has remade two of the so called “conscious” rapper’s tracks, “The Blast” and “Get By.” On June 2- while Talib was vacationing in the Trinidadian sun and 50 was home in NYC, preparing for the following days Hot 97 Summer Jam- the two connected for the first time ever, over the phone. We taped it, so you get to listen in.

50: I wanted to interview you because I am a fan of yours.

Talib: I want to say off the top that it’s an honor and a pleasure. You changing the game, you killing them. I’m definitely a fan. This interview means a lot to me.

50: I have a question I wanted to start off with. I wanted to ask you about Reflection Eternal. There’s a difference between Reflection Eternal and Quality, can you explain?

Talib: My mind-set behind Reflection Eternal was like, me and Hi-Tek we felt we had something to prove. I wanted to prove myself with the lyrics and he wanted to prove himself with the beats. So a lot of the subject matter on the album was straightforward like that. Like, this is who we are. Even the breakthrough single basically meant, this is my name and how you say it. And then when I was recording Quality…It wasn’t my choice to record Quality. Hi-Tek was recording something else, and Mos Def was working on movies. And I found myself waiting on niggas rather than being in control of my own shit. So I was like, “I gotta get my own project out there.” And I worked with my favorite producers at the time, Scratch and Kanye West.

50: The difference on this new one, “Get By,” is incredible. I think that is going to be a huge hit record for you, man.

Talib: Right. See with me Rawkus was in a transition period and there was no money coming. So I set up my own tour, and started going over Kanye’s crib and really taking my lead from people like you- ‘cause at that time your buzz was just in New York with the mixtape shit. I was just seeing how you and a couple of other people were just killing the mixtape game, and I was gonna put out my own album. And that’s when I recorded “Good to You” and “Get By” with Kanye. Those were at his crib in New Jersey. I was just frustrated, so I wanted to make some more music, and those ended up being the ones people felt the most.

50: People consider you “conscious” rap. If they put the labels on us, they gonna consider me “gangsta” rap. Is there a difference to you?

Talib: I feel a couple of ways about it. “Conscious” means being honest about your cradt and honest about your experiences. If you awake, you conscious, you conscious about what’s going on. You make decisions and you make choices that run your ife. How do we define if somebody is a “conscious” artist or a “gangsta” artist? It’s not something that artists or people who are fans of the music came up with. It’s something that the media and the corporations came up with to sell it. And the problem with it is there might be fans who might benefit from hearing a “Many Men” or hearing something that 50 got on his album. Life the fans who be like, “He gangsta,” or “He commercial now, he sold such and such records.” And it’s the same with me. Like a fan of 50 might not check for me because they might be like, “Oh he’s a conscious rapper and I ain’t on that conscious shit, so obviously he ain’t got nothing to offer me.” Like, “Whatever he has to say has to be geared to me,” and that’s a huge problem. That limits the artists and that limits the audience, so we cant really participate in that. In the beginning of my career, the first thing that people used to ask me was, “What you think of Puffy? What you think of Jay-Z?” As if I had a relationship with these niggas or something like that. I ain’t know none of these niggas. You know what I’m saying? I though of them like any music fan would, but people wanted me to justify what they was doing. People always come to me and ask me what I think about the war, when 50 Cent might have a valid opinion of what he things about the war.

50: That’s real. I mean, for the record, I would like to be considered a conscious rapper. I know what I’m saying when I’m saying it. It’s just that I’m saying it because that’s what it is. That’s the situation.

Talib: And you deal with the responsibilities and the consequences.

50: I’m jealous of that. I would like people to think that I am conscious. I think people think I’m crazy instead of conscious. ‘Cause when I get into a conversation with them, when I go to business meetings, I have to smile more to make people feel a little more comfortable. In some meetings I go to, I take my vest off before I go into the room. But the reality of it is, to be comfortable- with the lifestyle that I come from- I need that on. I should have that vest on. That vest could have saved Tupac’s life in that car, or it could have saved Biggie’s life in that car.

Talib: Word is bond. I’m a fan of everybody who doing it and who making it. But I notice that when a lot of artists get on, they stop paying attention to what other niggas is doing.

50: Oh yeah!

Talib: I try to read every article, especially if I like what somebody’s music is coming with. And the first thing I notice when I read articles about you, 50, is the interviewer- whether its from Time magazine or Entertainment Weekly or a hip-hop publication- is always talking about, “Oh he smiles. He’s a nice guy.” As if they are completely shocked.

50: Yeah, like they think I’m suppose to be crazy. And, like, you can go on certain shows, like Jimmy Kimmel and Saturday Night Live and the joke’s automatically suppose to be on you, because you supposed to be so thugged-out from your experiences and so hard that you can’t have a sense of humor.

Talib: I feel you, I feel what you are saying.

50: Hey, the remix to “Get By” has Jay and Busta on it.

Talib: Yea, but I heard your remix, too.

50: Yeah, we should’ve did that . I was going the other way, though. I didn’t know how you would feel about that. I wanted to know how you feel about the mixtape scene. That’s where I got my start at. I feel like that’s the largest form of promotion right now. Do you?

Talib: I agree. I never had no issues with mixtapes. When the labels first started trying to shut down mixtapes- with Kid Capri and all them, Ron G. back in the days, I never understood that. As a musician, I never understood the idea that you would want to shut someone down for doing that shit. That’s the essence of what we do. I’m in Trinidad right now. And the way that niggas do it down here on the radio, hip-hop is becoming more like dancehall. Whatever new hot rhythm comes out, niggas get it and hop on it. There’s positives and negatives to that, but the positives is that it’s exciting and its becoming more competitive. It’s making niggas step they game up. I think it’s dope. It made me step my shit up like, “OK, I can’t slack now.”

50: Like you said, a lot of people stop paying attention to what everybody else is doing when they get in motion because they so locked into they own shit. Some producers can’t hear a beat that’s not theirs. Le, its not hot no more if they didn’t make it. But I look at it like, I’m not a critic, I’m a fan to everybody. I’m a student. I listen to everybody’s music and I try to find something that I like. ‘Cause I’m trying to get on that record if I know that’s a record other people like. The “Kweli” record , I did it over ‘cause that shit was hot! Then I had to do “Get By” over again ‘cause that track was fuckin fire. I’m like “Damn! I know niggas is gonna like this one.” ‘Cause I hear it myself when its playing, like, This is a fucking hit record. Let me get on this now before…

Talib: You just beat me. I heard of the version you did the day before I put out the remix. I was like, Damn- this nigga quick!

50: I’ma be honest with you, I like the original version better than the remix. There’s something about the chemistry that you had going with the original that was so crazy.

Talib: This is my biggest record ever by far. I never out out a record and then remixed it. When I first played “Get By” for Jay, I asked him to be on the remix not knowing whether he was gonna have time to do it. He was like “Yeah, I’d love to be on the remix.” Originally, I wanted to keep it just me and Jay, keep it simple. Just to make a strong statement with me and him. But then Busta called me like, “Yo I got to be on this record.” And that nigga called me like five, six times a day.

50: He was real with it, right? He’s hungry.

Talib: And I think he blazed it. I’m glad I made that decision. What I try to do is lead into Jay and Busta instead of just having a whole verse. The thing that I did differently with that record- what I’m trying to do from now on- is…Ever since I came out, I’ve been focusing on making albums. The way I looked at the game was, I knew its singles-driven, but I’m not good with radio hooks and creating singles like that. I’m more of a lyricist. So I focused on making a great album. My albums have always been critically acclaimed and everything. Even if the public didn’t really get it, people who have heard my music always felt my albums. But I never had that breakout hit record until now. And all the anger at Rawkus and wanting to be out there more, I put into that one song- as if I was making a whole album. As if that one song was the last thing that I would do.

50: I mean, that record’s off the chain. You know when you hear something and you wish you did it?

Talib: I know that feeling well.

50: I heard that joint and was like, “Maan, why I ain’t I do that one?” I got another question I wanna ask you. I sampled a joint from- God Bless her, she passed away- Nina Simone.
Talib: Which one?

50: “Bad News.” And also when I start off “Wanksta,” when I say, “I got a lot of living to do before I die…”

Talib: She says that?

50: That’s a line that she says . She kinda said those words in a different way. But anyway, I know you did a few samples that had Nina in it, right? Did that impact you at all?

Talib: Yea it really gave me her perspective because I discovered Nina in high school. I got sent away to boarding school and- in order to keep myself clean, really- whenever I would go home, I would take my father’s old records and listen to them. I had a little turntable and Nina Simone records. The reason that she touched me is, when she came out she wasn’t a traditional singer. She wasn’t a trained singer in the way that some of these other ladies was. And she didn’t have the look of, like, a Billie Holiday. She was a lot more African-looking when she was doing them things. Even though she had that going against her in her career, she chose to speak about issues that affect poor people and issues that affect Black people. And you know she was ostracized for it, but she kept doing it, and she got to the point where she was like “Fuck America!” And she moved to France. Her career path speaks to me because I don’t feel like I do this naturally. I feel like I have a love for it and a passion for it. I’m ambitious and I’m intelligent to figure it out. But, for instance, with Mos Def I fee like its more of a natural thing with him. That’s why he can jump back and forth from acting to rapping. And with me, I feel more in touch with Nina Simone, like its not meant for me to do it, but I’m still doing it anyway. I sampled her on “Get By” and mentioned her in “The Blast.” But I didn’t feel the effect she had on me until she passed.

50: Have you ever thought about making beats?

Talib: I feel like niggas making beats is at the top of they craft right now. I wanna learn something so I can be at the top of my shit. I’ll learn the guitar and try and battle Wyclef.

50: That’s what’s up! ‘Clef is serious with that, too. Instruments and everything. A lot of people don’t actually play instruments, they know what it could sound like though.

Talib: Look, I had dinner with Lionel Richie a couple of nights ago and he told me that he never learned how to read music ever.

50: That’s crazy.

Talib: He’s like: “None of us was reading music. We just do it from our heart.” He said he’s friends with Luciano Pavarotti, the opera singer. He said he don’t even know how to read music. He said, “We all hustling.”

50: That’s real.

Talib: I’m in downtown Trinidad right now. I’m listening to “21 Questions.” They playing the hell out of this shit. That’s what I wanted to ask you. At what point did you start, like, your style is like you singing on a record. Like you write these hooks and melodies. Is that how you always was, or did you decide at some point, I’ma start writing like this?

50: I was doing it a little bit . But they stopped me.

Talib: Who?

50: The Trackmasters. On the first record, they kind of stopped me from doing certain things. They was like, “Nah don’t do it like that, do it like this.” ‘Cause they had a vision of what they thought I should be like. After I put out “How to Rob,” they said they thought I shouldn’t cut my hair no more. They thought I should be the closest thing to Ol’ Dirty Bastard. It wasn’t til after I got shot, when I didn’t have anybody to answer to but myself, that I started experimenting.

Talib: I mean, what you doing is real shit- it’s real writing. Like how you said you wish you could be a “conscious MC” or whatever, I wish I could write hooks like that. Just come up with melodies. The process that you just hear the beat and just say what fits. That’s what I’m trying to do more naturally with my music. I’m a writer first. Too often I think about what I wanna say first. But what I’ve done with the Quality album is not write anything before I hear the beat. The Reflection…album, I had my rhymes ready. I wanna change that.

__________________
Why In The Hell Would You Let Your Fingers Type Such Absurdity? - Me

BARS NOVEMBER 6TH

propzzzzzzzz

jondoejondoe195

sick interview.....Talib and 50 should totally get together sometime....he should just come out on a joint with like talib, common and kanye or some shit like that. 50 can write/rhyme any style he wants!

REIGN-MAN

50 Imagine 50 Kweli On A Record Shit Would Be Fiyya

LOL U FEEL UPSET?

lol they both acting so goddamn friendly

esco iz alive

dont cry talib it will be oh-kay :(

Europe Guy

propz, sick interview

Vjay88

props on this,

__________________
"Shit I been hated since the 5th Grade
Thats why my best friends the treypound, a Icepick and a Switch Blade" - Banks

Vjay88

what's the version of get by called that 50 did ?

__________________
"Shit I been hated since the 5th Grade
Thats why my best friends the treypound, a Icepick and a Switch Blade" - Banks

Lyrikcha

that was good...talib is real with it...he respects 50's melodies when u game fans be like FUck that singin ass nigga...he should stop singin when he always was singin...

__________________
No, I don't like you, Yes, you are a better emcee then Chambers, I give props where props are due.-Smoke1Life

ggggunit89

"it is what it is" ("dissin' murda inc) on g-unit radio 2

usaid

Who 50.. 50cent??

Hakaroodi

i love that Get By freestyle that 50 did... that shit was sick mayne.... propz 4 interview...

Blaze332

^^ can u up the song

Homicidal Thots

props nice interview

Pretty Soney

sick interview

50 and kweli... 2 of my fav

on one record id think they wud be sick

repped 4 the interview man

skunkie

props man... huge fan of both MC's

__________________
"We aint the ones to flex on
We always got the sket on
Step on, or get 3 to yo head like Stephon"
Lloyd Banks

gemma

i like that person

Freed Boogie

I still have this issue...it is definitely dopeness