O.C.: If I did some ‘If you do for me, I’ll..”, There’s no coming back from that. Word..Life would have been forgotten. If that was on Jewelz it would have been a Frisbee in the $.99 raps. It wouldn’t have even made it to CD. It was a funny thing and just now people are like this album is incredible. I’m like yea I told ya’ll that though.

HalftimeOnline: Far From Yours was hot though. Who takes Tevin Campbell? It took me a while to think that yo that’s Tevin Campbell.

O.C.: Nope it’s not Tevin Campbell, that’s Brothers Johnson and Quincy Jones. They made it first. Quincy made it over with Tevin Campbell on his debut on Quincy’s Back on the Block record.

HalftimeOnline: I like how you were the first to use the sample Hov used for P.S.A. and Black Moon used for Stay Real but nobody mentioned that it was on Word..Life. Were you sittin back like yo this was my interlude, I didn’t even rhyme on this.

O.C.: Nah, I take that as respect for the simple fact that I know somebody like Just Blaze is a vast thespian of music. Dude knows how to play the piano and if you listen to the record you’d notice that he played it over himself he didn’t sample it. He probably has the original sample too because he digs. Dawg has been doing this for a minute, he ain’t no new jack. When Buck played me the loop years ago I didn’t know how to attack that record, that’s why Jay is dope. So when Jay did it I was mad not because he did it, I was like damn why didn’t I think of that flow to that record. That’s just being MC counterparts. That’s what we are supposed to do with each other. I’m sure when Kane heard a Rakim record he was like aww man this shit is gonna make me go back and write something incredible. It was the same thing with Jay’s record. I know they listened. I know Jay listens to me and Nas listens to me just like I listen to them. Great minds think alike and you feed off of other people. You not coming up with a hot album doing yoga, meditating, and lighting incense around you. It’s not happening. You gotta listen to other people. If I was a stupid nigga I would have taken that as a slap in the face or a real hater and be like you bit that shit but he didn’t. We sample the same loops and everybody flips them different. Just Blaze is dope and Jay is definitely incredible. The thing is ya’ll niggas need to do your history. I used the loop just as an interlude. That tells you how far advanced I was with picking music. I was one of the main dudes doing interludes on albums besides Gangstarr and them. I came on the end era when Guru and Preme started really stepping their game up after Step into the Arena. They was doing it and I bit it off of them I’m not even gonna lie. I bit. I’m a Gangstarr fan. That’s where I got the idea like we gotta freak some interludes. I didn’t do it because of Pete Rock I did it cuz of Preme. My point is to lead into everything we’ve been talking about is I feed off of other dudes. That’s how I make good records. Everybody ain’t gonna like what I make. I know this but at the end of the day if it’s a garbage ass album that I made it’s because there’s garbage out here now and I can’t feed off of it. We are supposed to feed off of each other that’s what hip hop is.

HalftimeOnline: That being the case what is your opinion on the state of hip hop right now? Are you disappointed?

O.C.: I’m not disappointed. I’m disappointed in the sense of originality but business wise I’m happy to see dudes making millions of dollars and jobs for their homies, buying their moms homes and putting their kids in the same schools as these cridackers. I’m glad we’ve advanced business wise. The originality is lacking. It’s not all the way dead but it needs some resuscitation right now. I ain’t gonna lie though I listen to Jeezy and I listen to Anthony. I listen to everybody. I like everything. I don’t just sit in my house and listen to my records or Immortal Technique or somebody. You gotta be a well-rounded person. I listen to everything rock, rap, and underground. I might not like it but I’ll give it a listen. Jeezy’s not an MC, he’s a rapper. He makes good club records and I like dancing to his shit. My wife doesn’t like listening to Immortal Technique. She ain’t listening to no spitters, she hardly listen to me!

HalftimeOnline: Haha

O.C.: I think that’s the case for anybody who got a chick and they’re in the game. I don’t think Mobb Deep’s ladies be like yo..Quiet Storm. I don’t think they sing the lyrics to Quiet Storm. I think the effect is that your girl listens to everything but you. His chick probably knew he had beef with Jay at that time but she probably loved a Jay-Z record more than the Mobb’s. It’s crazy. I can distinguish who’s a rapper and who’s an MC. Fabolous to me is an MC but he does rapping. Breathe was a record that saved him. I don’t care what anybody says that’s a hip hop record. He was in pocket with that Just Blaze record. That’s a record I would do. I just pay attention to everything and I don’t try to judge nobody.

HalftimeOnline: I do. I can’t even front. I can’t rap for shit but I’ll be like damn this sucks and I can’t listen to it.

O.C.: That’s good. That’s what hip hop is. We are opinionated people. It’s supposed to be like that. That’s the only way you’re gonna keep on top of your game.

HalftimeOnline: Like I can’t get with the snowman shirt but I don’t mind this cat. But I don’t like when I’m flipping through the channels and turn on MTV’s hardest to understand rhymes or something and he’s on there like ‘Yo I’m going to the block, I’m going to the block.’

O.C.: Can I get an adlib?

HalftimeOnline: I’m like this is not difficult to decipher. That’s just insulting my intelligence.

O.C.: MTV don’t know man. They really don’t. Like I’m watching the cartoon network and they’re showing the Boondocks. These dudes are like shit, ass, titty, my dick, everything and this is on the cartoon network, but BET will bleep out Hennessey and hoe.

HalftimeOnline: BET is the antichrist. I’ve already come to that conclusion. I can’t fuck with them.

O.C.: They’ll bleep out Hennessey and hoe real quick but meanwhile they playing Boondocks on the cartoon network. It’s crazy. So MTV is only going with the flow of what’s bringing them ratings. If they didn’t have all these side segments on MTV2 they would be out of the game already. Nobody just listening to rock and metal, that shit is not what’s happening. Who sells the most records now? Probably the Latinos. They always did but they just got overshadowed. We selling damn near more records than Led Zepplin and the Grateful Dead.

HalftimeOnline: Especially with 50 out there.

O.C.: Not even just 50 as a collective. For example if you go to a club in Japan these Japanese kids be Dipset out.

HalftimeOnline: Haha, let me find out Japanese dudes is rocking pink bandanas.

O.C.: Nah they just straight thugged out. They wear pink too but they thugged out. They got their Dipset shirt on and ironed bandana around their head. They ice grilling and all that. They think that it’s a fashion thing. It’s a way of life for us but to them it’s fashionable. It’s a way of life for us. It’s a generation thing. This is something we created. It’s bottom wear clothes that’s expensive now. We’ve boosted Nike, Polo, and Timberlands. Everybody’s company has blossomed because of black people. I look at these young foreign kids and be like ya’ll don’t know why we do it you think its just something happening because it’s on TV. They got a L.A. store in Japan like the Esses out there. Dudes be walking around with the big flannel shirts with the hard ass dungarees and the slippers. It’s not a game and they will whip your ass. They looking like straight esses until you see their eyes and their looking at me like he got blue on. It’s bugged out. So I’m like I’m apart of this whole influence. Anything on the east coast that we’ve pioneered and championed I’m apart of. I don’t even think of like why I never got a quote of the month in the Source or why I’m never in the top 20, top 50 or top 100. I don’t even care about that any more. It doesn’t even matter to me. It did before when I was younger. Now it don’t because I know what I do, what my capabilities are, and what I’ve brought to the game and what I still bring to the game.

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Posted by Jbutters on Monday, May 15th, 2006 and is filed under HIP HOP ICON SERIES.