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Altering Popular Perception Since 1985

Diggin' in the crates: UN KASA speaks out about Dipset & Purple City


January 28, 2008 | Tags: un kasa

Unreleased UNKASA INTERVIEW w/ Dominque "A.H.L.O.T." Howse 

Growing Pains: Living in Purple City

 

 

Prior to September 11, 2007, A.H.L.O.T. caught up with Un Kasa in a Harlem public park to discuss his current relationship with his label and his frustration with the album’s release date.  Since then, Dipset members Juelz Santana and Jim Jones have performed with 50 Cent and have publicly displayed a mysterious relationship.  Was it betrayal or a symbol of nature's cycle, of people growing a part? 

Several questions could be raised, like “Where is Camron?”  “Is Dipset over?” and “What’s the future of Harlem?”  Un Kasa tells all, in this exclusive interview with ALTERING POPULAR PERCEPTION.   The Harlem native talks about his drama with Purple City Bird Gang, Jim and Cam’s relationship and his upcoming album- that he refers to as a “classic.” 

You heard it here first.

 

AHLOT: What’s been good?

Un Kasa:  Recording my album, going to different states and recording my mixtape.  I’m doing mixtapes. I’m recording, “The Motion Picture,” which is going to be a classic.  It’s going to be crazy but I’m not gonna brag.

AHLOT: Cool.  Take it back a couple years and let’s talk about your experience with Dipset and Purple City. 

Un Kasa: Basically, Dipset and Purple City is a brand that came from the streets. As far as the Diplomats, I’ve always been cool with Juelz.  Him and I grew up together and I’m a couple years older than him.  Him and I were always good friends and we did our street thing together, back in the day.  It was always a bond there.  As far as Cam and Jim, they came later on when L got his deal, when “Oh Boy” dropped and all that.  Everybody’s pretty close.  We were all on 145th and Broadway hustling cd’s, mixtapes, clothing and everything before we got our record deal, so the hood really knew us.

Purple City and the Diplomats came from us kickin’ it everyday. My man Luca got incarcerated.  When he got out we did the Purple City Bird Gang track with Jim.  We shot the video and right after that, it got poppin’.  After the Diplomats and “Oh Boy” and Cam really began poppn’ with Roc-A-Fella, and that’s when people really started to look at Harlem, when it came to the music. 

AHLOT:  Apparently, there’s been something going on between you and some of the people part of Purple City. This is your opportunity to clear everything up.

Un Kasa: You’re probably talking about the diss track that happened with Purple City Bird Gang.  It was situation where we were doing our second album and it was suppose to be executive produced by Jim Jones and Percy Trap Dealer.  We were shooting a video in Brooklyn and I was out there from 6:45 in the morning waiting for my part.  At around four in the afternoon, I was like “Where’s my part of the video?”  Little did I know I was cut out of my own video, for the first single on the second album.  They cut me out the video for “Trap Dealer,” for the first single on the album.  I didn’t know why and I didn’t have a cameo or nothing (really).  

At the video shoot, nobody had an answer for me.  I was talking to various people at the video shoot and everybody was really just looking in the sky and didn’t really have nothing to say to me.  I felt really disrespected. I’m out here working for this label and this family and I can’t get an explanation for why I’m not in the video or why I was even there?  It got a little heated, a week had passed and the label still hadn’t called me- nobody hit me, really. 

I spoke to the label a little bit about the project and they wanted me to weigh it out a little bit but there was no weighing out, cause everything was pretty much fucked up anyway.  After I wasn’t in the Purple City video, fans were hitting me up on the website and asked me what was going on. 

I went to the studio and made a diss record so that they could hear me out.

AHLOT:   Why did you feel it was appropriate to make a track and not just confront them in person or talk it out?

Un Kasa: I tried.  I talked to Sheist and a couple of other people in my camp and I asked them what was going on and they didn’t have any answers.  They were like, “Un, this is not our call.”  I’m like, if it ain’t ya’ll call whose call is it?  I did it the best way in which I thought I could get it out to the fans, to the label, friends and family.  I thought the best way to get the message across was through the music- that was the only way they were going to listen.  

AHLOT:  There are a lot of things going on right now within the Dipset camp.  In particular with Cam and Jim and rumors about Juelz choosing sides.  Where do you fit in and are you going to pick a side?

No, I don’t pick a side when it comes to that, because I’m really not into that.  Juelz is my friend. I kick it more with Juelz then Cam or Jim.   I haven’t seen Cam in almost a year.  I see them every now and then.  I’m with Juelz almost everyday.  I’m not about to pick a side; if they separate then they separate.  People grow and they get older, no hard feelings.  They might be going through they’re going through and they might look at it later on, like it’s something type crazy.  But at the end of the day, we’re all grown men and we grow older and sometimes people go different ways.  It ain’t like when we didn’t have record deals and everybody was together, everybody basically made it to a point where they can basically made to a plateau where they can survive on their own, without Cam or without Jim or the whole Diplomat thing.  That’s what happens when success plays (a role) and you get to a successful status- the break-ups and stuff.  

AHLOT:  Well, who is Un Kasa?  Who are you as an emcee?

Un Kasa: I put out classic music.  My music is like colors.  I put out music that reflects colors and I paint a picture with the pen I got.  I get hit up on myspace and on my website and a lot of fans are loving the new material.  A lot them though, don’t understand because, I can’t display the same music I did four years ago due to music’s change.  Music is changing.  I’m a keep the flavor but as a solo artist I’m trying to expand into different horizons.  The hard-core, underground music is for my die-hard fans- ain’t nothing fabricated.  I’m a street dude.  I just have different things I want to do with the music.  That’s why I changed up the format a little bit because people were getting use to me being, “Two gun Un” and colorful cars and stuff like that.  On my new album it’s party records, it’s conscious records, it’s snap records, it’s R&B records, it’s hard-core records- I’m putting all the music that’s poppin’ right now into one big Gumbo pot and showing them that I’m a genius and I can make good music.

AHLOT: What is some of the hot sh*t you listen to?

Un Kasa:  I’m listening to a lot of old stuff.  I have a lot of Biggie, Tupac, Nas, Wu-Tang and a lot of Prince, the “Purple Rain,” album.  I also listen to alternative music- Fall Out Boy and Avril Lavigne and stuff like that.

AHLOT: Do you feel like you have a responsibility to Hip Hop to display a different message or kind of sound that brings back variety?

Un Kasa:  The music industry is so different now and people have to accept it.  Music is changing and there’s a lot of snap music, ring-tone music and it’s just their time right now.  All things have their time.  New York rap never died, the focus is just somewhere else.  If you think New York died, then Hip Hop died.  There would be no “Snap Hip Hop” or any ring-tone music if it weren’t for New York.  The West had their time, the Midwest will have their time, the South has their time and New York will have its time, again. Everything goes back in a circle.

If you can’t go with the time or evolve with the time than you’re not a good artist.  I feel sorry for people who can’t move with the time.  New York will never go anywhere.   I am New York. I didn’t go anywhere and I’m still hot.  I’m still fire.  I bet I can do a song better than anybody who’s doing that type of music.  I have snap records and I’m going to put them out. That’s what poppin’ right now and I’m tryna stay in the loop of things and not be ignorant or narrow minded when it comes the music.    I respect it all and I do it all. 

AHLOT:  Give me a preview of the album.  Let me know about some of the features, content and production.

Un Kasa:  The album is called, “The Motion Picture.”  It’s an album based on my life experiences with music and has been the only big thing in my life.  Anything that was ever big in my life or worth taking about had something to do with music, so…I have Fonzworth Bentley on the album, I have a cut with Julez, I have a lot of new producers, I got Lex Barkley from Europe, I got Shareko from Spain, I got Dame “Grease,” Bee Eazy and Develop.  I have a lot of production.  I got a lot of people who’ve done some joints for me, Marley Marl from Beat Box and a lot of up and coming artist.  I got my man, Dinero, reigning from Jersey, the Dip family: S.A.S., Tom Gibbs, I got Bezzle, Max B and maybe a joint with Jim.  I’m tryna get a joint done with Prince.  There’s a lot of politics behind that though.

AHLOT: So, do you have release date?

Un Kasa:  Ya’ll gotta call up the label and tell them to let that Un Kasa album go.  They were telling me that they didn’t want it to be a project like that and wanted me to come out under somebody like Juelz (who’s mainstream) and I figure.  The whole situation with Purple City was funny for the label and so I don’t have a release date.  That’s why you can go to: www.myspace.com/unkasaman. You can check out some songs…I’m just rising. 

AHLOT:  Anything you want to make sure the readers know?

Un Kasa: I’m tired of people asking me, am I still “down with the Diplomats?”  That’s my family.  I’m still down with Purple City too, we’re still family but I’m just doing my own thing, too.  Don’t get it twisted.  I have “Crown Box” records- check out that on myspace.  I have a group out called, “Family come first” composed of my little brothers and cousins.  Look out for the clothing line and the whole family out there.  Look out for various mixtapes. I have a mixtape coming out, eight tracks Hip Hop and eight tracks alternative.  Stay on the look out.  

 

 


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