Some of us might consider Necro a gore-rapper, but he certainly doesn't. Raised on the raw, precise lyricism of the early '90s emcees, the Brooklyn-born rapper believes that sex, violence and drugs is human nature. Whether or not that's healthy, all three elements have littered Necro's past and his art. The emcee, producer and CEO clearly makes sense to many, because after releasing albums the last eight years, he's playing nightly shows with Insane Clown Posse, and recently released the Koch-distributed Death Rap.
HipHopDX would be lying if we said we didn't speak to Necro in celebration of Halloween. However, once we got on the phone with the rapper with the ferocious lisped delivery and grimy beats, the artist made a case why he shouldn't be pigeon-holed - by the media, by the fans, by Hip Hop. With Master P as his inspiration, Necro says he's not stopping until he's as big as 50 Cent. One thing is clear, each bar and each beat will take him there, the ski mask way.
HipHopDX: To what extent was the Brooklyn, New York of your youth a scary place?
Necro: The first time I moved to the projects, I was six years old. It was a fuckin’ maze. My mother let me walk around by myself and I got lost. I was walking around the whole projects like a fuckin’ rat in a maze, knocking on peoples’ doors; I was crying and shit. It was sick. It wasn’t no fuckin’ adventureland, no Disney World; it was a metal maze with metal doors and concrete buildings. Just drama everywhere. Always beefing and fighting. It’s not like suburban areas where people don’t get into too many fights. Every day pretty much, people are beefin’. It wasn’t me beefin’ with people, it was people fuckin’ with me – usually people three, four, five, six years older trying to be bullies and shit. You just had to get rugged dealin’ with shit like that. Every time you have to go to the store, there’s 20 kids on the corner, thugs, and they want to fuck with you. And you end up turning into that thug, which I ended up turning into [as a teenager]. The only difference with me was I wasn’t no punk thug. I didn’t start with motherfuckers younger, and I didn’t pick on people. A lot of places can be scary to different people, I was never really scared of my environments. If anything, I was scared of my father. The man was a killer from the Israeli Army, who came here when he was 21. He just looked at you and you got shook. He was the scariest thing in my life as a child.
DX: Do you miss that old New York?
N: I’ve lived in Brooklyn 31 years. To me, I don’t notice changes, really, ‘cause when you’re there, it is what it is. I kinda handle my own business, and don’t get too involved in politics of things changing. I don’t feel a change.
If you’re talkin’ about this Hip Hop culture, Hip Hop culture right now is a piece of shit. Everything changed. Right now it’s not about lyricism, dope music. It was always a music business. But art always had a real big influence, and art doesn’t have that influence anymore. It seems like it’s really only business now.
With me, I got to make the distinction. People think I’m horror-infested, and I’m this horror-rapper. I don’t really view it that way. I choose to rap different things. I could just rap thug shit. I would say I personify the “thug life.” Meaning, I don’t walk around everyday now, but I’ve done did it, lived it enough to rap about it. Just in the last show we did, we had to fuck up four people to the point where my manager is extremely nervous dealing with me. I’m not like Tupac. It’s not like I got known then got into drama – no disrespect to him. I’ve been getting into drama my whole fucking life. This didn’t just start when I became a known rapper. It just so happens that [lyrically] not too many people have delved into the sides I’ve delved into. On my new album [Death Rap], the first track is called “Creepy Crawl.” It’s me describing the two [Charles] Manson murders. The reason I do something like that is me choosing a subject that I feel will sound really hard over a beat that’s gonna hit you in a way that I want my shit to hit you, in a way that maybe I can’t hit people everyday on the street. I can’t just walk up to people and jux them in the neck every fuckin’ second; I’ll end up locked up. I’m not saying I haven’t juxed people in the neck, I’m just saying it’s my release of aggression. Some rappers might rap about Malcolm X or Larry Davis, so I’ll take Manson. I did it very creatively. It’s very descriptive. It’s very lyrical. All the rhymes connect.
Everything in life is horror. Malcolm X getting shot is horror. That was a gore scene. A bullet going into the head, blood dripping. A dude in Iraq, fighting for our country, who gets his leg blown off, that’s horror. People say, “Oh, you’re a horror-rapper.” You’re a horror rapper if you rap about the shit that goes down everyday in the projects. When I rhyme, I’m tapping all those subjects, but people focus on only one thing.
DX: You can’t be a dummy and touch on some of these things. How do you research the subjects, how do you absorb these ideas and spend your free time?
N: I do research on shit. I study shit. I apply some of my own life to it. When I see the opportunity to do something, I do it – whether we’re talking violently or scholastically. I like to be realistic with my shit. It requires work. Nothing’s dope if you just want to sit on your ass and be dope. You got to get on stage and murder 800 fuckin’ kids.
DX: I first heard of you with 1999’s “Get On Your Knees” through a magazine write up. You have such a cult following. Yet you say, “I don’t feel big yet.” How?
N: In the underground, I might be up with the kings. But I’m comparing myself to 50 Cent; I’m trying to be huge. I’m trying to be huge, but like he is. He kind of dumbs his shit down. Guess Who’s Back? was butters; his shit was bangin’, but he dumbed it down and blew up. I want to stay down, doing what I’m doing. I feel like I can get all the white kids.
I see no reason why a million white kids all over the country wouldn’t love Necro, or feel where I’m coming from. [I’m a] white kid from Brooklyn, Jewish, keeps it real, I ain’t getting played by nobody, you ain’t hearing about no rapper smackin’ me, nobody’s fighting me a fair one and knockin’ me out. I got enough going for me. I sound good live, I’m well-rehearsed, girls think I look good. I’m trying to be big the way all the black rappers are big. Only dudes on major labels are huge. I should be [too], ‘cause I represent white kids, and white kids are the ones who buy all this shit. It’s not really fair that Eminem’s the only white dude who can be big. There’s numerous black rappers who are legends, why can’t there be a couple white dudes? The game is so racist that they will not give anybody props. Then you’ve got 100 white rappers on the underground who aren’t getting nowhere, sell way less tickets and records than me, and people will think they’re on my level. I don’t think [so]. I’m not stopping till I succeed. I do good things, but I’ve got to keep doing good things. Every day has to be a good day. Last night I did this show with ICP [Insane Clown Posse]. I was out there ten minutes before three girls showed tits on guys’ shoulders. The first song; it wasn’t even a porn track and tits were being show, in Tulsa, Oklahoma with 1,500-2,000 kids in the room. People want to hear it. Anybody that doesn’t acknowledge is hating.
DX: You’re a respected and highly talented producer and emcee. The ability you demonstrate in both could put you in circles with Large Professor or Diamond at that. How do you juggle the responsibilities, or simply the creativity?
N: It’s actually very hard to do both. I hooked up equipment so I could make beats while I was on the road, I never did that. It’s a big juggle. It’s not the easiest thing. I’m kind of a triple-threat, and I hate to say that ‘cause a lot of people use that. But I’m a CEO of [Psycho+Logical Records], I make beats and I rhyme. Honestly, I could spend 30 hours just dealing with beats – whether it’s getting records, listening to records, making a beat, mixing a beat. Then I could spend a whole day writing a verse, another just dropping the verse in the studio. I could spend a whole day just answering emails and dealing with business, seeing if my record scanned well, artwork. It’s brutal. A lot of time comes into it. Keep in mind, I’m a pervert. We’re dealing with all these things, and we haven’t even talked about my dick. I gotta find the time to handle all this shit to get laid. [Laughs]
I haven’t gotten that big yet where I can feel like I can detach myself from this shit. I don’t think I could ever let my beats or lyrics be handled by anyone, which I’ve never done. The one thing I think I could hand off to people is the business. Definitely influenced by Large Professor, who you mentioned. Breaking Atoms [by Main Source] influenced me a lot. I was living in the PJ’s when that album came out, watching “Looking at the Front Door” on Video Music Box. That shit was bangin’. I go back. I go back to before Mobb Deep dropped, before Wu-Tang, before Jeru The Damaja dropped – in the fuckin’ the streets, rhyming before some of the biggest rappers who aren’t even fuckin’ big anymore. Before they even dropped me and [Ill] Bill were rapping. For me, I’ve got to be big, man. I’m not even as close to as big as Mobb Deep or Wu-Tang. You might know me, people know me, but people don’t. More people need to find about me, then they’ll know I keep it real. I keep it real in the street, on beats, on lyricism. It’s gonna take time, but I’m taking it there. Master P was dropping shit in ‘90, it took him seven years [to go platinum]. I’m at seven years now. Because I’m white and I do shit myself, it’s gonna take me a pinch longer. I dropped my first CD [I Need Drugs] in 2000. Give me 10 years. I put in seven, eight. I’m eventually gonna get my fuckin’ Universal deal. It’s coming. I’ve dedicated my life to Hip Hop, so I can’t let nothing get my way. And the fact is, there is a lot of shit it my way. There’s obstacles everywhere I go.
Check Necro's Myspace.
HipHopDX would be lying if we said we didn't speak to Necro in celebration of Halloween. However, once we got on the phone with the rapper with the ferocious lisped delivery and grimy beats, the artist made a case why he shouldn't be pigeon-holed - by the media, by the fans, by Hip Hop. With Master P as his inspiration, Necro says he's not stopping until he's as big as 50 Cent. One thing is clear, each bar and each beat will take him there, the ski mask way.
HipHopDX: To what extent was the Brooklyn, New York of your youth a scary place?
Necro: The first time I moved to the projects, I was six years old. It was a fuckin’ maze. My mother let me walk around by myself and I got lost. I was walking around the whole projects like a fuckin’ rat in a maze, knocking on peoples’ doors; I was crying and shit. It was sick. It wasn’t no fuckin’ adventureland, no Disney World; it was a metal maze with metal doors and concrete buildings. Just drama everywhere. Always beefing and fighting. It’s not like suburban areas where people don’t get into too many fights. Every day pretty much, people are beefin’. It wasn’t me beefin’ with people, it was people fuckin’ with me – usually people three, four, five, six years older trying to be bullies and shit. You just had to get rugged dealin’ with shit like that. Every time you have to go to the store, there’s 20 kids on the corner, thugs, and they want to fuck with you. And you end up turning into that thug, which I ended up turning into [as a teenager]. The only difference with me was I wasn’t no punk thug. I didn’t start with motherfuckers younger, and I didn’t pick on people. A lot of places can be scary to different people, I was never really scared of my environments. If anything, I was scared of my father. The man was a killer from the Israeli Army, who came here when he was 21. He just looked at you and you got shook. He was the scariest thing in my life as a child.
DX: Do you miss that old New York?
N: I’ve lived in Brooklyn 31 years. To me, I don’t notice changes, really, ‘cause when you’re there, it is what it is. I kinda handle my own business, and don’t get too involved in politics of things changing. I don’t feel a change.
If you’re talkin’ about this Hip Hop culture, Hip Hop culture right now is a piece of shit. Everything changed. Right now it’s not about lyricism, dope music. It was always a music business. But art always had a real big influence, and art doesn’t have that influence anymore. It seems like it’s really only business now.
With me, I got to make the distinction. People think I’m horror-infested, and I’m this horror-rapper. I don’t really view it that way. I choose to rap different things. I could just rap thug shit. I would say I personify the “thug life.” Meaning, I don’t walk around everyday now, but I’ve done did it, lived it enough to rap about it. Just in the last show we did, we had to fuck up four people to the point where my manager is extremely nervous dealing with me. I’m not like Tupac. It’s not like I got known then got into drama – no disrespect to him. I’ve been getting into drama my whole fucking life. This didn’t just start when I became a known rapper. It just so happens that [lyrically] not too many people have delved into the sides I’ve delved into. On my new album [Death Rap], the first track is called “Creepy Crawl.” It’s me describing the two [Charles] Manson murders. The reason I do something like that is me choosing a subject that I feel will sound really hard over a beat that’s gonna hit you in a way that I want my shit to hit you, in a way that maybe I can’t hit people everyday on the street. I can’t just walk up to people and jux them in the neck every fuckin’ second; I’ll end up locked up. I’m not saying I haven’t juxed people in the neck, I’m just saying it’s my release of aggression. Some rappers might rap about Malcolm X or Larry Davis, so I’ll take Manson. I did it very creatively. It’s very descriptive. It’s very lyrical. All the rhymes connect.
Everything in life is horror. Malcolm X getting shot is horror. That was a gore scene. A bullet going into the head, blood dripping. A dude in Iraq, fighting for our country, who gets his leg blown off, that’s horror. People say, “Oh, you’re a horror-rapper.” You’re a horror rapper if you rap about the shit that goes down everyday in the projects. When I rhyme, I’m tapping all those subjects, but people focus on only one thing.
DX: You can’t be a dummy and touch on some of these things. How do you research the subjects, how do you absorb these ideas and spend your free time?
N: I do research on shit. I study shit. I apply some of my own life to it. When I see the opportunity to do something, I do it – whether we’re talking violently or scholastically. I like to be realistic with my shit. It requires work. Nothing’s dope if you just want to sit on your ass and be dope. You got to get on stage and murder 800 fuckin’ kids.
DX: I first heard of you with 1999’s “Get On Your Knees” through a magazine write up. You have such a cult following. Yet you say, “I don’t feel big yet.” How?
N: In the underground, I might be up with the kings. But I’m comparing myself to 50 Cent; I’m trying to be huge. I’m trying to be huge, but like he is. He kind of dumbs his shit down. Guess Who’s Back? was butters; his shit was bangin’, but he dumbed it down and blew up. I want to stay down, doing what I’m doing. I feel like I can get all the white kids.
I see no reason why a million white kids all over the country wouldn’t love Necro, or feel where I’m coming from. [I’m a] white kid from Brooklyn, Jewish, keeps it real, I ain’t getting played by nobody, you ain’t hearing about no rapper smackin’ me, nobody’s fighting me a fair one and knockin’ me out. I got enough going for me. I sound good live, I’m well-rehearsed, girls think I look good. I’m trying to be big the way all the black rappers are big. Only dudes on major labels are huge. I should be [too], ‘cause I represent white kids, and white kids are the ones who buy all this shit. It’s not really fair that Eminem’s the only white dude who can be big. There’s numerous black rappers who are legends, why can’t there be a couple white dudes? The game is so racist that they will not give anybody props. Then you’ve got 100 white rappers on the underground who aren’t getting nowhere, sell way less tickets and records than me, and people will think they’re on my level. I don’t think [so]. I’m not stopping till I succeed. I do good things, but I’ve got to keep doing good things. Every day has to be a good day. Last night I did this show with ICP [Insane Clown Posse]. I was out there ten minutes before three girls showed tits on guys’ shoulders. The first song; it wasn’t even a porn track and tits were being show, in Tulsa, Oklahoma with 1,500-2,000 kids in the room. People want to hear it. Anybody that doesn’t acknowledge is hating.
DX: You’re a respected and highly talented producer and emcee. The ability you demonstrate in both could put you in circles with Large Professor or Diamond at that. How do you juggle the responsibilities, or simply the creativity?
N: It’s actually very hard to do both. I hooked up equipment so I could make beats while I was on the road, I never did that. It’s a big juggle. It’s not the easiest thing. I’m kind of a triple-threat, and I hate to say that ‘cause a lot of people use that. But I’m a CEO of [Psycho+Logical Records], I make beats and I rhyme. Honestly, I could spend 30 hours just dealing with beats – whether it’s getting records, listening to records, making a beat, mixing a beat. Then I could spend a whole day writing a verse, another just dropping the verse in the studio. I could spend a whole day just answering emails and dealing with business, seeing if my record scanned well, artwork. It’s brutal. A lot of time comes into it. Keep in mind, I’m a pervert. We’re dealing with all these things, and we haven’t even talked about my dick. I gotta find the time to handle all this shit to get laid. [Laughs]
I haven’t gotten that big yet where I can feel like I can detach myself from this shit. I don’t think I could ever let my beats or lyrics be handled by anyone, which I’ve never done. The one thing I think I could hand off to people is the business. Definitely influenced by Large Professor, who you mentioned. Breaking Atoms [by Main Source] influenced me a lot. I was living in the PJ’s when that album came out, watching “Looking at the Front Door” on Video Music Box. That shit was bangin’. I go back. I go back to before Mobb Deep dropped, before Wu-Tang, before Jeru The Damaja dropped – in the fuckin’ the streets, rhyming before some of the biggest rappers who aren’t even fuckin’ big anymore. Before they even dropped me and [Ill] Bill were rapping. For me, I’ve got to be big, man. I’m not even as close to as big as Mobb Deep or Wu-Tang. You might know me, people know me, but people don’t. More people need to find about me, then they’ll know I keep it real. I keep it real in the street, on beats, on lyricism. It’s gonna take time, but I’m taking it there. Master P was dropping shit in ‘90, it took him seven years [to go platinum]. I’m at seven years now. Because I’m white and I do shit myself, it’s gonna take me a pinch longer. I dropped my first CD [I Need Drugs] in 2000. Give me 10 years. I put in seven, eight. I’m eventually gonna get my fuckin’ Universal deal. It’s coming. I’ve dedicated my life to Hip Hop, so I can’t let nothing get my way. And the fact is, there is a lot of shit it my way. There’s obstacles everywhere I go.
Check Necro's Myspace.
