DX: Being in this recession makes that line about “no lights, no gas and much backed up rent” even more relevant now than it was then. As you went back and looked at his lyrics did you bug out off of how nothing’s really changed?
R: Yeah, because ain’t nothing changed, man. It only changed for a few of us. It changed for me. I’ve got a two million dollar crib, with the waterfall running right now in the backyard. But it ain’t changed for my cousins. It changed for a few of my cousins, but I’ve got hundreds of cousins. I’ve got a sister stuck in the projects. So, nah it ain’t changed, man. It’s only changed on TV, but in real life it remains the same.

That’s why I’m disappointed with a lot of these…I’m just disappointed with a lot of shit. I just want to say this real quick. I’m just disappointed with the images on TV of everybody playing, blinging and chillin’. You see the videos and shit and everybody will be going through the hood with all the diamonds and all the jewelry, but they’re in the grimiest hood. They film the video in the grimiest location, but they have the most beautiful cars, beautiful bitches and diamonds going on. Get the fuck outta here, man.

DX: Since you’ve been chilling with Quentin Tarantino and Jim Jarmusch, how much closer are you to controlling the images people see?
R: I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to control the images people see, but I’m striving to be a director and put some movies out.

DX: I phrased that one wrong. I mean how much closer are you to providing alternatives to the images out now?
R: Oh yeah, I think I’m very close to realizing that. I think that by the end of this year we will have shot my first movie if everything goes according to plan.

DX: What are you hoping to put out?
R: The Man with the Iron Fist.

DX: There have been so many projects you’ve mentioned that have never seen the light of day. There’s the Bobby Digital movie, The Cure and The Z Chronicles…
R: It’s funny you mention The Z Chronicles, because I was just watching that yesterday. I’m thinking about doing something with that one, because I think people will like that one, man. I see you kind of know my history, so I can talk honestly with you.

I’ve got all that shit, son. It’s just sitting there, but I’m not just throwing my shit out there like that. The funny thing about the Bobby Digital movie is that I watched it about two weeks ago. I showed it to Ol’ Dirty’s son, Barson, who is 17-years-old now. He’s a grown boy now, but he had never seen it before. So I showed it to him, because his father is in it, and this is before [Ol’ Dirty Bastard] went to jail. He looks just like him—he looks just like Unique Ason, and he was so happy to see that shit. He loved that movie, and I love it too because I made it 10 years ago. I made it 10 years ago, but it was based in 1989, so that makes it even funnier. When you see it in retrospect, you’re really like, “Oh shit that’s crazy,” because of the quality.

But these were movies I did myself without a script. It’s improvised and I basically wrote it without a script. I had money and I had the time, so I did what I did. And there’s a philosophy: as I become more of a star, they become more and more valuable.

DX: Prior to the movies, you made some history in terms of how artists deal with labels. Now that the record industry as we know it is dead, will doing all these independent deals open up new lanes for you?
R: I don’t know. The music industry needs more than the independent route; it needs a new product. I provided one, and I thought of one. I talked to a few people at some labels about it, and I don’t know if they heard me or not. I’m just gonna keep it to myself from now on. But, I’ve got an idea that would help boost the sales of the actual hard copies. You’ve got to look at what’s going on.

I told them ahead of time. In 1997 I said, “Listen. Instead of making videos when we do our albums, because we’re spending a million dollars on our videos, give me the money and I’ll do a whole movie for you. When niggas are in their cars, they can have my album and they can have my movie. They can just pay $20 for all this shit.” Nobody listened. I said, “Trust me. In five years, everybody’s going to have TVs in their cars.” They weren’t having it. I told them everything was going digital, and they didn’t listen.

DX: That’s crazy. So now that everybody is calling themselves “content providers” instead of artists, how can you profit off of your actual music without making some ringtone shit?
R: That’s a good question, baby. I just got off the phone with the label, and it basically went like this:

“Yo, I hope y’all shipped a couple hundred thousand units, man.”

“Oh, that’s too many units to ship.” Continued on page 3 »