HipHopDX: Your Hip-Hop Pet Peeve…

Phonte: Um…Shit…Aw, man! Shit, man. Where do I start? I guess my Hip-Hop pet peeve is nowadays, it being focused too much on the youth. It’s always been youth driven. Back in the day, when Kool Herc and Bambaataa did it, it was a youth driven culture. Youth being like 18-25. Like Herc and them, when they started, they weren’t young dudes. They were young but they weren’t 16. They were in their 20’s. So, it always seemed to be a voice for the youth. But now, as we move deeper it seems to be more and more a voice for kids. So now, you have kids dictating what adults are doing. You have cats making singles trying to get the 106 crowd and TRL crowd and you got grown ass men in their 30’s trying to write some shit that’s going to appeal to a 13 year old. That’s ass backwards to me.

That’s why so many people were pissed off at the "Chicken Noodle Soup" shit. Everybody else was mad, but I thought it was poetic justice. Once I found out the girl was 13 who did the song, I was like “Word up. That’s fucking great.” After all this time, all these n-ggas 35 years old, damn near 40 been making songs for 13 year olds, I feel it’s only right a 13 year old makes a track and makes money too. Shit, all these n-ggas making songs for kids anyway. Why not let kids make a song? Everybody else is f*cking raping her, trying to get all they can out of her generation anyway. Let her get some.

I guess that’s my biggest problem. It’s too focused on catering and pandering to the taste of the youth just because they’re the generation with the most disposable income. I understand it on another sense but when that happens, you gotta look at the turnover. You were 13 once, I’m sure your taste, just like mine, changed every other week. So, there’s no longevity trying to market to that crowd.

HipHopDX: Family…

Phonte: Family is very important. Family is one of the few things that I would die for…or kill for.

HipHopDX: Favorite Book.

Phonte: Ah, man. I would say The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. The issues of race and self hatred within the black community…It just touches on a lot of things. When I read it as a teenager, I didn’t fully understand. But now, as a man, you look back like Damn! That’s still one of my favorite books.

HipHopDX: Alright…When it’s all said and done, what does Phonte want to be remembered as?

Phonte: I just want to be remembered as a cat that made some dope music and inspired people to do something positive. That’s my main shit. I don’t really see myself to be a teacher of sorts, or a dictator standing in front of people like “Okay, this is the way to go.” I don’t really look at myself in that light. I just see myself as an everyday person who has his faults and has problems just like everybody else. But hopefully people can see me working through my shit on record and making good records, trying to be the best person I can be. Hopefully it will inspire other people to do the same.