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3/16/2009   Three years ago we posted everything you sent but lately we haven’t heard anything from you. Where have you been?    The last couple of years I’ve been real quiet but grinding. I got a song on the Scarface game called Montana's Revenge with me and my man Roc Raida. I did a song for The Con, a PSP fighting game, with my man Alchemist called "The Champ.” I also did the intro song for Shelton Benjamin, a wrestler for WWE called "Ain’t No Stopping Me.”  Eminem mentioned me in the Complex magazine a while back speaking about "100 to 1.” They asked him who was the last rapper that made him say, "Damn, I wish I thought of that." He went into his answer but before he finished he said something like, ‘There’s a song called ‘100 to 1.’ The interviewer said, “Oh, the kid Axel?” Then he was like, ‘Yeah! Whoever that is I was like, ‘Damn!’"  So that’s a good look for me besides that I’ve been working with my man Trav from the Gym Class Heroes. We have a nice little relationship and it’s been a nice journey since we linked up. I’ve been messing with him for almost two years. I’m actually in a situation dealing with Bat Squad. Pete Wentz from the Fall Out Boy gave Trav an opportunity to open his own label. Tyga is the first artist off the label. He had the single “Coconut Juice.” And I’m going to be the second artist off of that. It’s a good look. It’s good working with the Gym Class Heroes. They have an audience and I have an audience and these days you have to get the biggest audience you can get, especially with the way these record sales are looking.    How did you link up with Travis McCoy?    I met Trav through my man Dejesus. I grew up wit him. He was working with Def Jam at one time so I always gave him a CD to see who he can pass it on to. He eventually left Def Jam to work with Trav as his hype man. He passed Trav my CD and everything was history from there. Trav was a big fan of "100 to 1"and just wanted to meet me so we can do a song, but one thing led to another and I just sort of got down with him from there.    You and Tyga are totally different artists. Do you think fans will expect you to sound like him?    Nah, nah, nah. They’re going to see the difference from the jump. I’m a totally different artist. Tyga’s my homie and he do what he do and he has his type of fanbase for what he does, but for the people who have been following me for a long time, they know Ax. I’m hip-hop. The people who I fuck with doesn’t change who I am. Gym Glass Heroes has their sound. Tyga has his sound and I have my sound.  It helps that I get the freedom to do what I want. I don’t have that label pressure to make a certain record the way they want it made. They’re allowing me to be as versatile as I want, and that’s always a good thing. I could do a joint like "100 to 1" and then go all the way to the left and do a joint like "School Girl." You never know what to expect from me. I cover every angle and that’s what makes me different from every other artist out there, not just Tyga. You also have to understand that we all come from a different area. I’m from the Bronx. Tyga’s from Compton and Trav's from upstate New York. That right there shows that we’re different automatically. It’s like three different sounds. They have the indie alternative hip-hop/pop on smash and I’ll come through and smash them with the raw, gutter street shit.    How involved does Travis McCoy get in your music?    He’s real involved. Since he made it to where he’s at now I take a lot of advice from him ‘cause he been there and done that. So I always listen to what he has to say to prepare myself for the future. And the beauty of it is that I’m a real hip-hop artist. I can blend with everything. I can still be the raw spitter that I am and I can still have my style with how I do things but I can definitely attach to their style real quick. We have a bunch of songs together. Travis is a dope MC and then he do his other shit and it just meshes. It’s perfect.    How did your story track “School Girl” come together?    I hooked up with Stress. He’s an in-house producer for Bat Squad. Stress is a whiteboy based out of Philly. He actually did the beat for the “Cookie Jar” remix. He did the “School Girl” joint and a bunch of other shit. I went down to his crib for five days and came back with 10 songs. “School Girl” was one of the joints. Trav liked it so much he posted it on his blog. That shit just came out of nowhere. I told my man Riggs about it. That’s still my homie. And I guess he hollered at y’all about it. I didn’t mean to put out that record it just happened. It was cool though.    “Reality Rap” is still my favorite song that you’ve done.    “Reality Rap” is still dope! I still have that on my MySpace and I still do that at all my shows. “Reality Rap” is what I’m about. That’s what you’re going to see. I’m deep when it comes to rap. I’m deep when it comes to hip-hop. I’m an all-around rapper for real. I got a joint “Brave Dreams.” There’s an acoustic version I got with the Tyler from Gym Class Heroes, he’s playing the guitar and I’m pushing some vocals on it. It’s real dope. I love records like that. “Reality Rap” is my shit. That’s where I come from. That’s what I live day by day.    Even though “Reality Rap” is over three years old, how relevant is that song to what you’re doing today?    That joint is still dope. That’s a joint I could have wrote yesterday. “Reality Rap” is timeless. What I’m doing today ain’t that different. I changed with time. Everybody changes with time but it’s still the same shit. It’s still the same Ax no matter what.    Do you feel like you lost your buzz when you fell back?    Hell yeah. I lost a lot of momentum. That happened because I was going through a lot of ups and downs and I was expected to make it super-big and you know how that shit goes. I felt like I was paying dues for too long with no results, a straight up empty dream. My little momentum started falling back a little bit and I wasn’t really fucking with it too tough but, you know, it’s my craft and I’m going to do what I do. I definitely want to build up the buzz and I’m going to come hard. I’m going to build the buzz back up again and get it back to what I’m known for, that A-x, that fire.  I’m making the transition into making some real songs and real music. That’s what rappers don’t do. Rappers that are that nice, they don’t make a record. That’s what everybody’s trying to teach them. I’m going to be the rapper that has it all: dope lyrics and real songs, hits, singles…I ain’t in it to be broke. It’s time this year. I could actually work more than I could talk about it. Y’all are going to see it, definitely.    Have you always been working with Shady’s Riggs?    Riggs is that nigga. Riggs will always be that nigga. We never really stopped fucking with each other. We were going at it more heavy back in the days but I started going my own way. It’s nothing against Riggs but I tried to really do me and find myself and who I am in this rap shit first before I involve anyone else in my project. But at the end of the day, Riggs is always my man. He ain’t trying to steer me wrong and I ain’t trying to steer him wrong. He’s definitely one of the better things that happened to me in this game. I’m always calling him for advice. He puts me on to what’s going on in the game. When he needs something I got him and when I need something he got me. We just have that relationship going on. I always keep in touch with him. That’s my man besides all this music shit.    You used to do some great work with Team Demo out of Virginia. Do you still work with Jady and those guys?    Those are my homies too! We got some shit popping. I still got some records with them that we haven’t put out yet. Team Demo is dope. I actually gotta holler at them. I haven't talked to them in a little minute. I got some fire shit to their beats. All them niggas is cool people.    Can you take us inside your writing process?    My writing process is crazy. My songs come together when I hear the beat and sometimes I ain’t even gotta hear the beat. I’m just wild creative. I’m real artistic. I turn everything into music. Everything I talk about…I think about a line. It’s crazy how I come up with it. I might have just finished watching something that put me in the mood and I’ll just throw a crazy beat on and just start getting it in. Sometimes it just comes out of nowhere. It’s crazy.    I really go through shit. There’s a lot of shit going on around me, a lot of problems…Mom’s still in the ‘hood and we’re all just grinding and shit. All of my niggas are trying to make it out and I got the talent to make it out. We’ve been on the grind since. I put that shit into my music too. I write shit people can relate to. I write what people go through on a day to day basis.    I’m still in the ‘hood and Travis put me on some tours and shit. I went a little bit on each tour. I would be gone for one week or two weeks on a tour and then another week on another one. I seen what that was like but I’m still in the ‘hood and I’m still here and I still live that life. I could really translate it into music because I’m still here. A lot of rappers make money and don’t come back to the hood so you can’t feel it and you can’t hear that struggle in their voice because they’re not going through it anymore. I’m still here and I’m still struggling, that’s why my music is way more real that the average rapper cause I’m living it. And I put that in my music.    When I come out with songs like “Reality Rap,” you can hear it in my voice and you can hear the hunger. That’s real life and that’s really what I go through. I can change with every mood and any track you put on. I can kill some shit from the south real crazy, I can kill a West Coast beat. I do it all. I can do any record with anybody and I won’t fall way behind. I’m definitely never going to be the wackest nigga on a record or in a cipher. I’m always going to be No. 1 or No. 2 and that’s only next to a nigga who’s super-dope. I’m always going to be on point. That’s what my writing process is like. I can’t explain it any clearer. It’s just natural.    Do you prefer writing songs or coming with the strong punchlines?    I prefer writing songs. I prefer writing my records. I got shit for a cipher and I got shit for the studio. I got shit for everything that’s going on. I just rather spend my time doing what’s going to get me paid. I really breathe music. Everything I do is about music. I’m real entertaining when it comes down to that shit. Whatever beat you throw on, I’ma body it. Don’t get it twisted though, niggas cant fuck with me when it comes to the punchline flow either.    What kind of potential do you think you have in the game right now?    Hip-hop ain’t go nowhere so I ain’t gonna bring it back. But I think I have potential to change the game. I’m talking about it and it don’t sound official because I’m just talking. But time will tell. This is who I am. I’m not your regular rapper. I’m your Jay-Z, your Eminem, your Biggie. I’m not your regular nigga who comes and goes on mixtapes. I’m going to be a legend. I’m in this shit for the long run. Ax is going to be a name next to Nas, Pun, 50 Cent, a household name. I’m going to be one of those rappers, a hip-hop favorite.  Fans are going to embrace me. I fuck with real hip-hop dudes. I fuck with dudes like Showbiz to DJ Premier. He goes crazy about me when he’s asked about me. And then I still fuck with Travis and them. That’s another market. Everybody accepts me from the old school to the new school. I just fit in and I’m not regular. I just plan on destroying the game from every way possible. When you see my name you get excited. You’re about to hear some shit that’s gonna blow your mind. When you press play and you know it’s my music, you know you about to hear some shit that’s going to make you go bananas. It’s not some regular nigga’s freestyle. You know I come with it every time.    What does it mean to you when legends like Showbiz and Primo give you props?    It’s dope. It just proves that I’m down. It proves that I blend. It proves that I’m hip-hop to the core. A lot of niggas be fronting. A lot of rappers don’t get approved by these people. A lot of rappers don’t want the approval from them. They’re like, ‘Fuck the old school. I don’t need approval from them to sell records.’ Some rappers don’t get approved by the old school and some rappers only get approved by the old school. Some rappers don’t get approved by the new school and some only get approved by the new school. I get approved by both and that’s what counts. That’s why I know I’m here to stay. There are always those people who stand out in every cipher. In every cipher I stand out the most. I’ll be the one they’re talking about the rest of the night. I’m not going to mention no names but I ain’t no come and go nigga. I’m going to run this shit soon. You'll see.    What do you need to do to get to where you feel you need to be in the game?    I just gotta grind. You gotta grind. I could do it more than I could talk about it. This is it. 2009 is mine. I just need a single to pop me off. But you can’t just come out with one record because everybody’s not going to feel that. Everybody’s not going to feel “School Girl.” And everybody’s not going to feel my hardcore shit. That’s why I do it all. When I do a record I’m trying to please everybody. I’m trying to really entertain everybody at one time. If you don’t fuck with that shit you’re going to fuck with this and if you don’t fuck with this shit your going to fuck with that. I’m not trying to be a regular rapper like I said before. I’m trying to bang shit out from every angle and keep niggas on their toes.    When niggas hear me they want to go write ASAP. When they hear me in the cipher, they tell me they wrote some shit after I left. They tell me I inspire them to write and my shows are off the hook. I gotta do more shows and have everybody come out and see what it’s about because I really put on a show. It’s hard to put on a show when you don’t have a single. When niggas don’t know you and you step on that stage, they’re trying to get rid of you real fast. They’re not trying to hear your shit. They’re just trying to see the main event. And that’s where I come in, not as the main event but as one of the only rapper you can actually watch and enjoy with out a single. Let’s see you fake-ass rappers do that. (laughs)    When I step on stage you wanna watch that shit. I bring what rappers need to bring when they don’t have a single. I basically put on a show, an unforgettable one. One of my routines is banging on a table making my own beat to this record I have called "Industry Story.” Then I do some creative shit in between that. I ain’t going to spill all the beans too. You’re going to have to come see for yourself. Then I’ll finally finish my set with "100 to 1" with the last 50 numbers accapella. I have 'em going bananas. I’m not trying to bore you with a fucking dance song ‘cause I don’t have a dance song that everyone’s familiar with, so I’d rather not put my fans through the boredom. That’s not what I do.    Can we expect more dope concept records like “100 to 1”?    Man, I got “1 to 100.” I ain’t gonna put that out for a minute but ya'll get it soon. I got “ABCs.” I just put that shit out on YouTube. But shit like “100 to 1,” that’s one out of a million. It’s hard to come up with shit like that. I won’t compare anything that I’m doing to “100 to 1” but I’m always thinking outside of the box and I’m always thinking of some other shit. When the beat comes with fucking adlibs it means they want you to do some karaoke shit to it, not me, I write around the adlibs and still kill it. You’re always going to be excited and waiting to hear what I got coming up next and shit.    Where do your best ideas come from?    My best ideas come from shit I see and hear. People will be talking and I’ll take it in a different way. People will be talking and they interpret it in one way and I’ll look at it in another way and I’ll write a rap about that shit. They can talk about something that’s real interesting and it makes people listen to what they got to say and I can turn that shit into a rap. I don’t know how to explain that. I can just turn that shit into rap. That’s why “School Girl” is so dope ‘cause when you hear it you vision it like a fucking movie. If you listen to it you can imagine a nigga running down a hallway chasing down a bitch and waiting for her when she’s going away. I go to my room, hop on the bed and jump on the laptop. You can see that shit. That’s my gift. I can make you get lost in the moment and visualize what I’m talking about. That’s my gift. I turn words to visions.    You’re from the Bronx but spent a lot of time in D.C. How did that move help you?    The city’s so busy and there’s always so much shit to do that niggas get unfocused. You wake up and you want to do this and that but then you smoke a blunt and then a nigga calls you and you forget about what you was about to do. You lose focus fast in this busy ass city.    But when I go out to D.C., I don’t know nobody. So I’m in the studio all day whether I like it or not. It makes rap everything to do. I got nothing, no contacts out here. No nothing. It makes me free of everything. I don’t pick up no phone calls. I just bang out music because that’s all I got. Then I go downstairs, get something to eat and go back upstairs and work on the music. I’m forced to do that. I’m forced to come out with some bangers. That’s the purpose of going out to D.C. – to get shit done. And I had to give myself some self time and just figure it out and chill out and just bang out some music. There ain’t a lot of distractions out there. So a lot of shit gets done.    That’s the reason I go out to Philly to bang out shit with my man Stress. We did 10 songs in five days. I’m good for two songs a day. There’s too much shit going on in the Bronx. I easily get distracted because I have access to bars and clubs and when I start to drink, forget about it.  I’m much more focused out here. I wake up in the studio and I get my drink on and get my smoke on with just myself and my music surrounding me. There’s a lot of musical inspiration around me. The more creative and musical people around me, the more creative I get. The more you’re around people who don’t do what you do, the less you’ll get done. You just gotta be around the shit that you do to succeed.    What’s the next move for Ax?    I’m fucking with that Bat Squad shit real heavy. I’m looking forward to dropping a record in ’09, an actual album. That’s one of the best things about dealing with Travis and the whole Bat Squad family, that your album actually comes out. They don’t shelve you. They don’t play around. They do what they say and I’m guaranteed a chance. It’s pretty dope.    This is just the beginning of a classic collection I plan to have in the future. I’m really trying to do the Biggie, Eminem, Jay-Z shit, all the back to back classic albums and the dopeness where people are always waiting for my next joint to come out. I’m trying to put together a classic like that and change the game one day at a time.    I’m Spanish. A lot of niggas that are Spanish ain’t doing it like that. And you can’t tell that I’m Spanish on records. It’s funny because when people hear my music and meet me, they greet my Black friend like, ‘You got that fire Ax." Then my friend points at me like, ‘He’s Ax’ and they start bugging out like, ‘I didn’t expect him look like this.’ And that’s why I’ma take over the game, because I got that shit that people don’t expect me to have.    I’m from the Bronx and there’s not nobody in the Bronx really doing it right now. I’m running the Bronx right now. I’m going to be like a savior of this whole shit. We need a Spanish nigga in the game. And at the end of the day I’m nice and you're going to enjoy what I do. That’s basically it. I got a lot to bring to the table. I’m a new face and a breath of fresh air in this rap shit.

By Brian Kayser

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