Being labeled a “conscious artist” in a lot of ways seems like a double-edged sword. Interviewing Common, he was saying how a lot people don’t give any leeway to those artists because there’s this bar that has been raised where you can’t even be human anymore. How do you feel about that?
The pressure comes if you’re trying to be that. And I never have been trying to be that. I’ve only been trying to reach the goals and objectives that I think are important to my community and my people. I think people easily do things like labeling just for stereotypes. If I did call myself a revolutionary…I have sex, I smoke weed, I drink beer and alcohol, I love to have fun and be on a Caribbean Island more than I like to be in my hood. Talking to people like Assata Shakur, who is exiled in Cuba, she calls herself a reluctant revolutionary. Because we don’t really want to do this. None of us want the drama. It’s just what has to happen. I want to live better – I have to live better. So the whole idea of being conscious – I fight the idea, I fight the label all the time. It puts this box around us. Most people say Martin Luther King was conscious. He was. Martin Luther King drank, had orgies with women…I’m saying that we’re real people. And as quiet as it’s kept, I’m not any more revolutionary than you are. Sometimes people prove me wrong. Sometimes people say and do things that I believe are against their own good. And I think it’s because they’ve been bought. Kind of like what 50 Cent said in GQ magazine about his admiration for George Bush, who I know is a terrorist and a criminal. With that being said, I like 50 Cent, but I think that was the stupidest thing he ever said in his entire life. Most people don’t understand that we’re under the gun and we don’t want to be that way. Now, what we’re willing to do and what statements we’re willing to make, is different. Some, like Master P, will make it seem like it’s all good, but will donate a million dollars to a great cause or put up a community center. It lets me know that he has a heart beat. You don’t have to be wearing the revolution on your sleeve. My album lets you see me as a whole person, whereas maybe with Dead Prez, you assume that we’re these strict ass vegans that don’t even have sex. I go through that all the time, from city to city. I’ve had internet articles written about that, just because it’s some sort of contradiction for me to love women. And I don’t take advantage of them…but because I enjoy women, I’m some sort of hypocrite? That’s crazy. Continued on page 3 »