Halftime: I was reading an interview of yours and it said you really studied LL coming up and how he was one of your major influences. What was it about him that you admired and what things did you pick up watching him?

CL: His professionalism. Sometimes the things that you key on you really can’t define until you experience it yourself but I would always loved his professionalism and the way he approached things. When we went out to dinner he always told me ‘I try to stay away from the things that make me old.’ I understood what he was saying but at the same time I needed that elder statesman behind me to show me. Growing up at 20 or 21 you’re starting your professional career but I wasn’t one of those dudes that wanted to be considered young. I wanted to be looked at as a grown man or an old man because my whole vibe was even though I’m 21 it was more like I was 41. So I grew out of that YG shit immediately after I started seeing the world. That really helped me with that whole straggling the fence of the street and being professional knowing what to feed both sides.

Halftime: The influence ya’ll had was something positive but you still had respect amongst the street hooligans. What were your intentions for the first album and what message were you trying to send?

CL: I was just trying to show people that even though it’s a young gun type of world and all my friends want to do this and that shoot people and be that gangster, I want you to understand that I come from a rich history of black men. I come from a great bloodline. It’s like that dog that’s not a regular dog you see on the street. It’s a top of the line dog that when you see on the street and see it doing wrong you know it’s not maximizing its potential. I want people to know that if I’m doing wrong a lot of people will come to me and say that ain’t you brother. He’s not for you. You come from a different scale of people than that. Not that they are economically above but culturally, bloodline wise and even with lessons. I came up with lessons so there is no excuse why I should have been a failure at anything. I came up with the lessons of how to survive, how to be a man, and how to conduct yourself around anybody. A lot of times I would use brute force and I had to use my brain to get out of a lot of stuff. Once I started learning I don’t have to throw punches to get my point across it was like someone enlightened me. I can talk my way out of this now. I don’t have to pick u a gun or hurt nobody. Once I started talking my way out of things, my friends started looking at me different. He’s not knocking them out any more he’s changing. That’s where the struggle begins when people don’t realize change is good and the same is lame. We can’t go through life thinking the same way and doing the same shit. I can look at guys now who are 36 or 37 like me and they are still doing the same shit because they never allowed themselves to think any differently and they’ve suffered over that.

So thinking and maturing and knowing in your heart that you are a leader you have to go out and lead brother. You can’t satisfy the pack by following the pack. If you’re meant to lead the pack then lead. If it’s to righteousness then it’s to righteousness and if it’s to war then it’s to war but wherever you lead them you must be the leader and catalyst for where you end up at. When I talk about music you can’t help but talk to me about life because they’re intertwined. A lot of rappers rhyme about selling drugs or that they’re gonna kill people and that they have all the money and bitches but it’s not conducive to their everyday living. What about your grandmother? You stashing cracks in your grandmother’s house, how does she feel about that? My grandmother told me to move over to my grandfather’s house. That’s something to write about. I’m unsuccessful as a crack dealer so how can I be beyond this. Am I the follower? Yes, because I’m not even a success at doing something wrong. If you can look at that in plain English then you will be able to correct that. If you are not going to correct that then this is how you end up in jail, using your own drugs or killed. Nowadays there are no rules. Just the other day I’m seeing a snitch walk past me like ain’t nothing wrong. We all read the paper and seen the name but yet they can exist. Now here’s another obstacle you have to go through. The streets aren’t the same anymore. Over 50 percent of the thugs you consider tough dudes are snitches. So how do you get past that? Who wants to be a thug or a gangsta right now when you’re really a snitch? The true gangsta that lives by the code of my era isn’t talking. We’re just doing because we already got the lessons. You have to go find them. It’s about everyday life when you talk about music. If you’re not talking about everyday life then you can’t possibly be talking about my music. I’m talking about the streets and that’s where I’m going with this “American Me” album. It’s like a campaign for presidency. Either you’re new or you’re old there’s no in between so that must be created. Where can I go beyond a nigga not pulling up his pants and being a grown ass man? There is none but once you have that and you get an opportunity to go to these record execs you realize their not in the streets. They don’t know nothing. So you hear the differences. They don’t have that connection or the hunger to go in there do what they got to do and get out. It’s not about being in the streets it’s about getting out of the streets and moving. There not moving with it or connecting with these young dudes. These young dudes ain’t calling them godfather and respecting them. I’m making them respect me. I’m about two words. The most I talk is in interviews. That’s where I can talk and have no boundaries but in the streets it’s two words brother. But when they get that food I notice the thugs can’t help but want to be around me. It’s the energy they want that they can’t get because it ain’t out here anymore. All the dudes older than me are dead and gone. I used to walk with a 50 year old man that did 25 years in prison and five straight years in a box. So I’m not going to prison because I’m walking with a portable prison. I’m skipping over that part. That’s what you’re supposed to do. Walk with somebody that did the years for you. That’s where I’m at right now.

Halftime: I’ve always heard you say on the records that you were going to retire when you were 30. Why return now? When you said I’m out you was out like no one really heard from you.

CL: Yea, I always said that and I was out by 25. I think what brought me back was walking these streets and getting tired of people saying please come back. I’m not here because I want to be here. I’m here because the people said we need you back. They wanted me back but they didn’t know how I was gonna come and when I gave them that shock value they wanted me to have them Lupe Fiasco tracks. They thought I wanted to come like that. When I first saw Lupe and how the public was embracing that music I thought to myself this is how they still want me to come. They want me to be like him and be a little kid who grows up happy that he’s getting tracks but that’s not where I’m at. I’m either going hard or going home. I went hard once and I had Pete Rock with me and I gave them that. They didn’t bite my lines but once I left the positive stuff alone and went right into what I was dealing with without cursing or offending people that’s when I started getting the press and shock value that I wanted. They was like he’s getting serious going back to that YG movement, that soldier movement because sometimes you have to fight a war to have peace. That’s where I am right now. I’m going to war with other rappers. I’m being competitive, I’m not just glad to be here. I want to take over. I can sit in my house and have a better time with my friends. I want to come in and dominate. I’m here to build on this foundation. You have so many records you can expound on. A lot of these records I have like “American Me” “Smoke in the Ar” and “Warm Outside” I wouldn’t even have if I was in the circle of that whole group thing. When you’re in a group you’re confined by what the group likes. You’re confined to what the group will allow you to do. Even though I’m the lead vocalist and writing everything if he don’t like it I can’t say it. That’s where we’re at right now. Now it’s the freedom out of those chains and you don’t have to be that house nigga. You the field nigga now. You’re coming through breaking the chains and saying fuck that masta shit. He’s your master but I’m ready to revolt and if you’re not ready to revolt motherfucker then you are going to get the same thing he get. That’s the bottom line this is about the black man’s plight. That’s why I needed to take ten years off just to write about stuff. If your shit is real then you have to take time out to write about it. Why are you coming back when you said you were leaving at 30? I left before 30 but the book was not finished. I have to finish the chapter. I’m not even looking past this album. I’m saying here it is in your face take that and if you want more you’ll demand more. I’m not going to just give you more because I feel I’m back. You’re going to dictate what it is and what you want. If you don’t want no more then I’m satisfied that I got it all out of my system.

Halftime: You’re talking about the new path and going solo and what obviously comes with that is people on the outside looking in saying I wish it was like this or like that. A lot of people point to the chemistry that you and Pete had…

CL: Oh hell yeah.

Halftime: Before we even go into how that switched what do you think it was that made you guys such a perfect match in terms of what each of you brought to the table?

CL: We basically groomed it from the nurturing stage, from the pause button stage. We took it to certain levels and we grew together. His beats weren’t better than my rhymes and my rhymes weren’t better than his beats. They grew together. Once you have two entities like that working together and growing together it’s like an assembly line. Everything is clicking and we can do 3, 4, or 5 songs a day. All it is is run up the hill and write and run back down the hill. Or he’ll call you up like oh my god I made this beat come down here and get it. Come get it, go up the block write it, and come back down the block. It’s the influence and enthusiasm that’s got two young dudes trying to punctuate their lives or their careers. It wasn’t a surprise to me when he started producing all of these records. At the same time I am the catalyst that made everybody say this dude is a great producer or that this dude is a great emcee. I don’t see any emcee on the planet that would have taken Tom Scott and made ‘Reminisce.’ I don’t see any rapper on planet earth that would have taken “Straighten it Out” and made it that or take “Lots of Lovin” and make it that. Or “Take You There.” A lot of dudes did the ‘keep rising to the top’ but they ain’t make it that. It’s to the point where my idols are remaking my records. The Mary’s and LL’s. Mary redid “Searching” and LL redid “Take You There.” Everything is a circle and it comes back to the beginning.

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Posted by Jbutters on Tuesday, November 21st, 2006 and is filed under HIP HOP ICON SERIES.