Tragedy Khadafi is a veteran in the game. Most people don’t know that he had a hand in the careers of fellow Queensbridge rappers Capone and Noreaga, or that he grew up in the studio, watching members of the legendary Juice Crew. But Tragedy spent as much time incarcerated as he did rapping. With his album, Thug Matrix, now released on Fastlife, he took some time to talk about his other projects, life, and what it means to be an Intelligent Hoodlum. In other words, the man has a lot to say. So whether you love or hate his music, you have to respect his hustle. There’s no sugar coating life in the hood, Tragedy Khadafi breaks it down and gives us the real talk…

Talk a bit about the neighborhood you grew up in. A lot of people don’t know Queensbridge is the biggest housing projects in this country. How has that influenced you and your music?

That’s a good question. One of the biggest ways that it influenced me and my music is from my lifestyle- the environment that I grew up around. For instance, when a lot of dudes was tryin’ to be the next Patrick Ewing, or Michael Jordan, or Magic Johnson, or whatever, my focus and responsibility was feeding me and my brothers and sisters. I didn’t really come outside like “ok, I’m gonna go hang with this dude, or that dude.” I came outside to get money and eat, since I was a kid. QB really grew me in a lot of different ways ‘cause I met a lot of different individuals… The funniest shit about Queensbridge is when you move out there, no matter where you from, you never fucking leave. Yo, you never leave that project. That hood is crazy. For instance, I remember when I was like 14, laying in my bed, watching a movie at like 1 or 2 o’clock in the morning, and I had to go to school the next day. I was in Junior High School. And it was some dude walking across Hollywood Boulevard and the camera shot down and focused on him walking across the stars. I remember laying on my bunk bed and saying to myself, “damn, I will never see no shit like that in my life.” That’s how everybody thinks in QB. You really think, “I’m never gonna leave this place.” Me and Littles was talking the other day, I said “yo son, everyone that comes to the Bridge never leaves that place.” It’s like a graveyard or some shit… And fortunately and unfortunately, that shapes our music. I remember a time where the streets translated the music, and then the music translated to the rest of the world what the streets were like. And thus that gave me the concept for CNN. It wasn’t just because Capone N Nore: CNN. I was like, we gonna report from the street, we gonna be the CNN for hip-hop, we gonna report what this is, what we see here. Just because you see something on the news don’t mean it’s right, that don’t mean it’s bad, depending on which angle you looking at it, which perspective you have. So, that’s what we did. But that’s what music WAS. But now, it’s different. It’s like the music dictates the street now. And that’s crazy. Continued on page 2 »