HalftimeOnline: Word, even just how a lot of people sampled quotes from the first record like, ‘I’d rather be broke and have a whole lotta respect.’

O.C.: Yea, but with that statement a lot of people get it misconstrued. I be like I never want to be broke homey but I’d rather be broke and have a whole lot of respect meaning I won’t compromise bending over and taking it up the ass for a check. I might get blacklisted for this but it’s a lot of homos in the business. I’m dead serious. All jokes aside there are a lot of homosexuals in the music business.

HalftimeOnline: I’ve heard that before but the people named are usually the ones where you’re like what? Nah not him.

O.C.: Who you think make the decisions man? I ain’t saying no names but CEOs man. There are a lot of older cats. Like Jay said the Three Wise Men or something. Them dudes is gay man. It’s not a game. I’m not against it. I’m not gay or homophobic. It is what it is. We can almost say anything on the radio today so I figure why I can’t say that. That’s what I meant by that statement though. I saw it early on. I used to be around Serch and get stuff from Nike because he had a top 40 record. I was like oh this is the perks of being down with you cool. I’ve been around Russell a few times and seen other cats where I was like he’s fruity. He’s a fruitcake.

HalftimeOnline: So what’s like the best moment you can remember in your career?

O.C.: Probably the first time I went to Japan. Premier deejayed for me. Come on man DJ Premier deejaying for me. He was the first dude that took me over there. We was on tour, it was me, him and Lordz of the Underground. We had 3,000-5,000 people a night. I never witnessed that. I haven’t had a moment like that since. People came out because I was new but also people came out to see Preme and Biz. I might have packed em in with a 1,000 but it got to the point where they had to turn people away. I have yet to see that again. I’ll be back and forth to Europe dolo or with DITC and I’m packing em in 1,600 maybe 2,000 a night. That’s incredible for somebody who’s never had a plaque on his wall. Nas and Jay and them is packing 2,500 so if I’m pack in 900-1,000 a night that’s saying something.

Marcus: This reminds me of our G. Rap interview cuz it’s raw and uncut. Only difference is G. Rap would have been naming niggas.

O.C.: Haha. You could pattern my career behind him. It’s so fucked up that G fathered a style that we’ve chipped, bit and stole and he never had a gold record much less sold a mill. How can that be when he fathered a lot of stuff? He didn’t father gangsta rap, Schooly D did but on the east he was apart of that. A lot of dudes weren’t talking tough like that around the time he and Kane were around heavy. Not no punch line ‘get shit on like Exlax.’ He was on some straight ‘I’ll stuff the gun up your nose and blow your top off’ and this was ’90-’91 like woah. And he was spittin lyrical. He was giving you both sides of his mirror. So I had to really soul search before this last album dropped and see if I still wanted to do it. I can’t go back into this with a negative attitude and feel like people owe me something cuz at the end of the day nobody owes me anything.

HalftimeOnline: Who would you say were your biggest influences? Would it be a G. Rap or Rakim?

O.C.: G. Rap, Rakim, Kane and Slick Rick would be the main dudes that I bit. Let’s get it out there. We all bit. Pharoahe will tell you the same thing. He’s probably the closest thing I’ve heard to G. Rap in years. Him, Pun, and Black Thought. You couldn’t tell me they weren’t Kane and G. Rap fans.

HalftimeOnline: Pun was straight from G. Rap with the things he was saying.

O.C.: And Pun would tell you off the top if you asked who he liked he’d be like G. Rap. He would quote every G. Rap record to you literally. That’s how deep Pun was into the music. G. Rap, Kane and Rakim were my main influences and story wise it was Slick Rick and KRS. If you go back to all my albums by me telling you this you could be like oh I see what he’s saying now. Constables is KRS and Ga Head is a Slick Rick type of record. It’s not the same thing but I mirrored it. I’m not ashamed. Rakim would be Ozone and Time’s Up is basically a Kane mixed with G. Rap record. Becuz and No Main Topic are records like these dudes did. I’m not saying I bit them to the letter but I did them like this is how Kane would flip it in my mind. I never compared Nas to Rakim because he was more like G. Rap to me. I probably sounded more like Rakim than he did. Nas was more simplified than G. Rap. Same thing with Rakim. Mine is more simplified compared to Rakim. He was simple but if you look at a movie and you see a camera in space and the camera is moving away like its flying and the stars start to get smaller Ra was saying that in Follow the leader. ‘Small balls of clay, world’s out of sight as far as the eye can see.’ This nigga was ahead of his time 15 years ago.

HalftimeOnline: You mentioned KRS. I think one of the sickest songs you have is Burn me Slow from the Buckwild compilation.

O.C.: Oh yea. I put that back on Jewelz as bonus cut.

HalftimeOnline: Looking at that one was that something you got from KRS.

O.C.: No doubt. Them dude’s influenced me so there’s no shame. It’s bad that the cat’s coming up right now don’t have anyone to influence them that’s why they all sound alike. And straight up and down that’s why I like Jeezy. He’s not an emcee but he don’t sound like nobody. That’s what attracts me to him. The first time I heard him say can I get an adlib I was like what the fuck is he talking about but he saying his own shit and it means something to him. That’s the meaning of hiphop. He’s talking the same shit in the sense of the coke and the keys or whatever but you gotta have something to attract people to you and he has that something. I don’t know what it is but I got his record.

HalftimeOnline: How did you and Pharoahe get down with F.T. for the Metal Thangz record?

O.C.: My man knew the cat that ran the label and F.T. had been doing his thing for a minute. Honestly, they had a check but on top of that F.T. was dope and I was probably hot at that time. You know how that goes, when you hot people want to make records with you. It wasn’t F.T. it was his label like do a record with O. I didn’t think we matched. He talked a lot of tough killer shit and me I don’t talk that killer shit. But I like son, we used to bump all the time and it was like your label is gonna cut a check on top of that cool. I really didn’t see the match up though with me and The Pharoahe. It came together though.

HalftimeOnline: Speaking of that I know there was talk about you joining Organized..

O.C.: Nah that ain’t happening.

HalftimeOnline: I know it’s not happening but I’m just saying I remember the talk and I don’t want to harp on it but I know there was an issue there with you and Po. Was it the timing of doing it or was it that you guys weren’t on the same page to do it at all?

O.C.: Nah, fuck that nigga Po. Next question.

Jbutters: Haha, ok then

Marcus: I’d like to see you do a song with Nas produced by Premier or Kanye West. That shit would be blazing.

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