Halftime: So between then and now what have you been doing to maintain?

Nine: I was hustling baby! You gotta do what you have to do to stay alive. I did Lugz commercials for Flex. I did beats for a couple of those. I did some Burger King joints. I did some voiceovers. I was working with other artists. There are some cats I started developing and producing. I was doing little things behind the scenes that people probably don’t know about.

Halftime: What about the Jeep commercial?

Nine: Nah, see that’s a whole different story. There’s a legal issue going right now concerning that.

Halftime: Haha, ahh man they tried to jack?

Nine: They tried to get slick nahmean. I can’t even talk about it until they settle it out.

Halftime: Aiight but yo what was your first reactions when you saw the commercial and it was like ‘steady bouncing in jeeps on the NY streets?’

Nine: Haha! I started smiling like finally my turn. 1-800–I-GOTCHA. My man Finesse got paid off lovely, my man Chuck D got paid crazy from St. Ides for jacking his record, so I was like finally my time. I knew somebody was gonna get stupid. It was just a matter of time. I think what it was is they just had this thing someone sampled and they didn’t realize it was from a song put out by an artist. That’s as much as I can say.

Halftime: So you were mainly doing behind the scenes stuff until you were ready to comeback?

Nine: I don’t want it to seem like I had a label job or anything like that. I was doing little stuff but between ’98 and 2000 I just walked away from the whole thing. I didn’t really want any parts of it. Then I started doing little scattered things to get paper. The commercial game pays well so I would do that strictly for the paper but I wasn’t thinking about being a music exec. I would help other artists develop and started getting into production. It wouldn’t even be industry related. Then about a year and a half or two years ago I decided I wanted to come back into it full force. I started writing again because I don’t even think I wrote any lines from 2000 to 2004. I wasn’t even trying to write because when you write for so long it’s just nothing to say. Then when things start changing you gotta sit back and become a fan again so if you decide to come back you come with a fresh ear. By then that old flow will be out of you. A lot of dudes don’t want to let goof that old flow and that old flow is what killed them.

Halftime: I heard you on the new Juggaknots album is that the new flow? It’s not the usual “Whutcha Want” Nine flow people are used to.

Nine: Right, what happened with that was that it was a deadline thing. I was in the booth and I did that song a long time ago with them. I just threw it up there and I was running through the words. I wasn’t whispering but I was talking really low on the track. I had done another song with them but it couldn’t get cleared so at the last minute because of a deadline Breeze had to go put his vocals behind what I had laid down because that’s all they had of me on there. I told them people aren’t even gonna believe that’s me because it don’t sound like me. As far as the flow maybe apart of me was like saving it like that’s for me, haha. I haven’t been heard in a minute and I’m not trying to come back and just survive. I want the crown. I want to come in the game and take it and then make some history at the same time because I don’t think anyone has done what I’m about to do. I’ve never seen someone be out for ten years and come back and be successful. But during those ten years I haven’t put out anything. A lot of dudes continue putting out albums under the radar and they hear you so much that they don’t trust you no more or they hear too much of you. However, if you just stay away and then comeback there will be a new story to tell.

Halftime: So what got you to the point where you were ready to comeback?

Nine: I needed a reason and over the last year and a half it’s been eating at me. I can’t let the chapter close like that. It’s not gonna end like that. I have to show people that it’s nothing. There’s nothing special about half of these cats that are spitting. It’s now how it used to be. It’s not like I want to make it how it used to be but we need a little bit of substance and originality. That’s what really sparked me to do something at this time. I knew I was gonna do something eventually but I wasn’t really concerned. A lot of people were telling me you’re waiting too long, you’re getting older and people are going to forget who you are, etc. but it didn’t phase me.

Halftime: How did you get down with the Juggaknots?

Nine: Oh that’s my family. My cousin Shawn grew up in the same neighborhood as them. I was in a club once around ’97 and he introduced me to Buddy Slim from the Juggaknots and was like this is the dude I was telling you about. Then I met Breeze and they was cool so we hooked up like six months later at 3rd Eye’s (Jesse West) house and we just started talking. Ever since then we’ve been cool. We’re like family. I was just at his house last night. We’re still close. I support them in anything that they do and I’m proud of their album. They stick to their guns and do what they do rather than conform.

Halftime: Do you still mess with Jesse West and Rob Lewis?

Nine: Nah, I haven’t seen Rob in like five years. I ran into him once but Jesse West is my man. He runs the studio in the Bronx that I record in. He’s like a pro tools master now. He’s a producer and he has some artists coming out. He’s still nice but he is more of a producer/engineer now.

Halftime: Does Froggy Frog still chill on his lillypad?

Nine: HAHA! I have no idea.

Halftime: So what are the things you’ve noticed that have changed in hip hop?

Nine: I think mainly the delivery of what you’re spitting. People used to emcee and show you that they can rap, then they used to rap at people and now they are talking to you. If you’re making a record today you have to be talking to people. People always want a new approach and I think that’s why the south is successful right now. They’re just talking basically. I’m not trying to dis them or anything but I don’t think they really sit down like I’m gonna put this in this bar or change the rhythm here. I was reading the interview ya’ll did with Rakim explaining how he broke his rhythms down, nowadays people would be like what? He went through all that? He cared about what he was giving to you. He wanted to show you that the last two did this but now I’m gonna do this just to be different. Nowadays, when you buy an album you’re gonna hear what you heard on the next dude’s album and you’re probably gonna hear the same guest artists.

Halftime: What adjustments do you plan to make in your music in order to be successful? I know you don’t want to just cater to the masses.

Nine: I think I’m just a lot better. The production is better and I have something to talk about. In ten years a lot of shit has happened to me that I can talk about and now I see how to deliver it. It’s not about appealing to the masses because I still believe that your originality is what appeals you to people and I believe that people are sick of hearing the same thing. They gotta be sick of it because it shows in the record sales. You have to pull some tricks to sell records now. You gotta retire and then un-retire. You gotta punch him in the face or battle with him. It’s like you have to pull tricks to make people go to the record store now. People are bootlegging and it’s as much the artist’s fault as it is the bootlegger. People don’t even trust spending $10 for an album when they think they are only going to like 2 or 3 songs. I don’t trust it. I don’t buy nobody’s album if I don’t trust them.

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Posted by Jbutters on Monday, December 18th, 2006 and is filed under SICKWIDIT, LOST & FOUND, INTERVIEWS.