DX: Going back here, are those two verses that Pimp gave you gonna surface in the future?
KM: Yeah, but I’m in no way gonna capitalize on no man’s death and try to put it out there now. It’s all about the musical integrity to me. More than anything, if they never come out, I just always wanted to rap with my favorite rapper.

DX: Well maybe you’re the wrong person then to be asking this next question, it’s all water under the bridge now, but did you take any offense to Pimp’s comments about Atlanta last summer? Is Pimp’s legacy in any way diminished in the ATL because of those comments?
KM: Man, you got to know Pimp for real! Like, Bun, and Wendy Day and others who had already known Pimp before I even met up with him said, “Hey man, Pimp is Pimp. And if you fortunate enough to ever have Pimp as an associate or a friend he is gonna be one of the best, closest friends you ever known, but at some point he is gonna cuss your muthafuckin’ ass out.” So I was already prepared [for his comments], but what I wanna say is even though you can argue semantics over is Atlanta the south, okay, he know Atlanta the south and we know Atlanta the south, but Pimp understood that Atlanta now is a far cry from what it was 10-15 years ago. We have tons of people moving in from other places. And this ain’t here nor there, this ain’t for or against, but you do have a higher homosexual population moving into Atlanta ‘cause this the next big city. Like New York, like Chicago, like Los Angeles, people coming to make they dreams happen. I’m in a city where I’m from here and I’m a stranger. If I meet five people most of ‘em are not from here, but they here. You have people saying, “I’m from Atlanta,” but they from the suburbs of Atlanta. So, most of y’all don’t know what the real Atlanta is, Pimp did. Now that we off that Atlanta shit, because Atlanta is the south, but Atlanta has gotten on some ole bougasie-ass, black hollywood shit. And if nothing else, what [Pimp’s comments] did was make niggas say, “Hold on now, am I claiming to be a real street nigga and acting hollywood?” ‘Cause when Pimp was rappin’ that street shit, we seen [UGK] in the streets. So it’s like, you can’t have it both ways, man. Either you gonna be bougasie as a muthafucka and holding your nose up above the people, or you gonna be with the people. But you not gonna be able to have it both ways Atlanta.

DX: Switching gears here, tell our readers about I Pledge Allegiance To The Grind II, what should they expect to hear from you this go-round?
KM: It’s gonna be a leaner album. It’s only gonna be about ten cuts, but I’m trying to give y’all the ten best I got in me. I’m trying to give y’all the album I can die when I’m done making it.

My music has always been representative of not just me, but the bigger community of people that I feel are just like me. People who are brilliant and who are smart and caring, but come up in some of the most brutal circumstances known to man. You can call it the hood, you can call it the streets, you can call it the ghetto, you can call it what you will, but this is where we from and this is what we about. I represent the grind, man. And the grind is whether you paying five thousand for nine ounces, or whether you working a nine-to-five to get your family by, I’m with you. The grind is the marriage of hustle and hard work. If what you doing is for the greater good, I got to be with you.

I Pledge Allegiance To The Grind was a political statement of sorts to say, I’m not like these other niggas. I’m not like the nigga that wanna shine on you, and who every time in a rhyme he smoke better dope than you, fuck better hoes than you, and who drive better cars than you. And I’m not talking about one nigga, I’m talking about a lot of niggas who [rap] that. What I say to you is, Man, we in this shit together. We all trying to make it. Whether you play professional football or you work on the back of a garbage truck, brother I’m on your side. Whether you strip on a pole or you do hair for a living or are a secretary at a school, sister I’m on your side. I understand that your work, what you do for money, does not define you. What defines you is the character and the integrity that you carry into the trap, that you carry into the job, what you do with it and what you do with those resources. I’m trying to inspire my people to get up, get out and get something.

DX: Can I make a request, that those ten songs be like “The Juggernaut,” “Get Em Shawty,” and “Rap Is Dead,” high octane tracks where you get your Ice Killer Mike Cube on?
KM: What’s funny is me and Rhymefest just sat down and reviewed Ghetto Extraordinary last night and he took me through every track.

DX: Is that a fair comparison, are you the 2008 equivalent of golden era Ice Cube?
KM: Man, let me tell you, Ice Cube is one of my rap heroes. He’s a titan of rap, and it’s an honor for my name to be said in the same sentence as his. I only wish to be recognized as the greatest student under Ice Cube, Scarface and Kool G Rap. I could never be them, ‘cause they pulled what they pulled out of thin air and I had them to be an example to me. I only wish to be the best reflection I can possibly be of what they did for me, and that was inspire me to make some of the best street-hop, gangsta rap that people have ever heard in their lives. So it’s nothing but an honor to me. I call myself the new school Ice Cube not in any way to feel as though I’m replacing, or could ever replace, Ice Cube. It’s only my ambition to be a measure of what he was and what he is. Continued on page 3 »