HipHopDX: You're also one of the rare cases in music that's able to show his views without coming off as preachy. How difficult is that for you?

Saigon: It's very difficult. I learn from being around stic.man and M-1 of dead prez, those are my close friends. They've been around me since day one when I first got out the bing. They've been trying to help me get my point across, but at the same time be able to (communicate) with a kid on the street selling drugs who doesn't want to hear that shit. Everybody knows selling drugs is wrong, it doesn't take me to say that. On the same token, you've got to come to the people as they are. They say Jesus hung out with thieves and murderers; he didn't come like, “I'm holy and you're not.” The father Clarence Phillips started the Five Percent Nation, he was teaching the kids how to add and multiply by shooting dice with them. They thought they were gambling, but they're actually learning how to add and multiply. You can't come like, “I'm smart, you're dumb.”

That's why kids like me. Kids love me, because I've been a kid before. When I get around kids, I'm not like, “I'm an adult and you're a child.” They know that shit already. I sit right there and I turn into a three or five year-old right along with them. Then, you know they like you.

HipHopDX: Have you had any situations you've had like that? Where you're listening to the music, and you're thinking that the artist is preachy?

Saigon: What I get from a lot of these artists is that these dudes try to say something, but they don't really have a good way of saying it. I could listen to a whole song, and I understand, but I can understand how the average person wouldn't. You can't feed a baby steak, you've got to chop that shit up. It's like the difference between a baby eating apples and applesauce. Most of these kids have childlike minds in the hood, their minds aren't that developed. So when you come to the people talking about, “The Emancipation Proclamation, it says dah dah dah dah dah,” they don't understand that shit. “You look at the Fourth Amendment, dah dah dah dah dah,” they don't know nothing about the Constitution and their rights. But if you say, “Hey, if you fuckin' sell that crack, that cop's gon lock your ass up.” They understand that shit [laughs]. You fuck that shit without a condom, you're gonna get burnt; how's that? They understand that shit. It's all about coming to the people as they are. A person has to be able to relate to you to even want to hear your shit. Continued on page 5 »