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10/26/2006 What's up? I'm great. I'm feeling very, very blessed. What does the title of your new album, 8WM/Novakane, mean to you? What I'm basically saying is everybody has an agenda. If it's not on our agenda, we're numb to it. We're numb to everything that's not on our agenda. That's where the Novakane comes in. What is on every young man's agenda? Women with women with weed with wine with me. That's how you get 8WM/Novakane. I thought someone would get a kick out of it. It's a serious album, but I don't want people to take it seriously. At the end of the day, I'm not this person trying to dictate who you should be. I'm just trying to make some suggestions as to how shit could be. We're all going to have our own agendas, but at the end of the day is it more important to spend $30,000 on a chain or on opening up a daycare center? I just wanted to address issues I thought was relevant to the hip-hop community. Did you have fun recording the intro track? That was fun. I wasn't trying to sound like I was from down South. I was trying to say "Is this what we are aiming at for our voice?" You'll hear a record like "Chicken Noodle Soup." I heard it was a hot record three or four months before I heard it, and when I finally heard it, I was like, You've got to be fucking joking. That's not my voice and that's not where we come from. I was poking fun at the extremes on the intro. Why is 8WM/Novakane a digital-only release? The label is called Bumrush and it's my own label. I really felt it was in my own best interest to get the label started. There will probably be something physical in stores soon. I felt it was important to control my own destiny and to say "Black Sheep is the first artist coming out on my label." It's just me taking baby steps. This may not be in every record store initially, but it's available globally. It may start out smaller, but if I sell 100,000 or 200,000 units, then I'm a huge success story. If I do that on a major label, they're showing me the door. What are you judging this record's success on? It's all out of my own pocket. The overhead on it is good for me on this. It's not going to take a lot for this to monetarily be a success. It's more important for me that the masses hear it. I feel I really took the time to say some things that are relevant. I feel good about what the title says. A lot of tracks on 8WM/Novakane sound a little more 2006 than vintage Black Sheep. What sound were you looking for? That's not by accident. That's my word. The production has changed. The way we did our first album was much dirtier. The technology has changed. I feel like we'd be fools to not embrace it. There are so many cats, especially younger cats, that might not be aware what it took for our first album to sound like it does. A lot of younger cats probably don't even care. We're trying to be soulful but also be a little more what cats are used to. We're trying to keep our old fans and add some new ones. Do you like your dirty or clean sound better? I like them both. There are times when the dirt is exactly where my head is at but then there's times too when I can really appreciate the clean, soulful music. When you're performing it and you can hear it throughout the house and you know you wouldn't get that sound over something that's murky. Don't get it twisted. I appreciate where I came from and a hot beat is a hot beat regardless, but I can embrace technology. If you're not with it, you're going to be behind it. Your flow has definitely changed over the years. How would you describe the change? It was nothing that was contrived. Me rhyming 15 years ago was me putting together some of the first records I've ever done in my life. Now I've been on a couple of thousand stages across the world and I've put in countless studio hours. It's just the maturation of me as a person as well as an MC, from subject matter to how I choose to convey it. It's not so much that it's different. My thing is I think it's actually better. People see what they see. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I'm just curious to see what people think. It's good to see you're still working with Showbiz. What's your chemistry like with him? Show is one of the few people in the industry who I can say is my friend, period. He's more talented than I could ever convey in an interview and I think that's been apparent in everything that he's done. He's such a good dude and I got a lot of love for him as a person. I love being around him and to work with him is a privilege. He's very soulful and he's a master of what he does. I'm very, very happy to call Showbiz a friend of mine. How grimy is the hip-hop industry? Everybody has their own agenda and it's nothing to even get upset about. It is something to realize and accept. Look at something for what it is and accept it for what it is. It's not something to get caught up in or ask why. Accept it for what it is. It is what it is. Everybody wants to be something other than what they are in hip-hop. Show is someone who's comfortable with who he is and loves what he does and comes from somewhere else where he realizes he doesn't even have to be here. I'm one of those cats. How lucky am I? I'm doing an interview with you and I could be shoveling shit somewhere. That's how I look at my life. No matter what I make, how lucky am I that I get a chance to do something I love and that people love me for doing it. Do you think your fans will accept 8WM/Novakane? Our focus is not on trying to make an album that sounds like 1991. Don't get it twisted. I know cats think that's the true school period. I felt it was much more important to make something relevant. I'm not trying to make a flashback. I'm trying to hit you in the head with something that's current, but you'll definitely be able to see where I come from. I'll give you that. Why did you keep the Black Sheep name even though this is more like a Dres solo album? Mr. Long (fka Mr. Lawnge) is actually on a couple of hooks on this project, but at the end of the day he decided he wanted to do a solo project. I wish him success. I think he has aspirations beyond what we were doing. I will always respect his wishes. He wanted to rhyme and do his own production. At the end of the day who am I to say he shouldn't do it? Are you concerned with the title being misleading? It's not supposed to be misleading. After we started working on it, he decided to be a part of it. It's a Black Sheep album in the sense of what it is. I'm basically known as the voice of the group and Long is a contributor to the project. I'm certainly not trying to mislead people. Our brand is well-known and I'd be a fool to not take advantage of what we already established regardless of anything. That's something that we built and it was his decision to walk away from it. That doesn't mean that I should. On the song "The Choice Is Yours," you're talking about "you can get with this or you can get with that." Do fans have that choice today? Nah. Shit is definitely shoved down people's throats. You have your Viacoms and Clear Channels of the world. I don't blame them as much as I blame DJ's. DJ's have to grab some fucking balls. If they're teaching kids bullshit and you know it, then you need to do something about it. I know it's a business and I know money plays a major part in everything that's going on around us, but at the end of the day, I think there are certain things like character that are much more important. People will appreciate character much more than the size of your rims. A lot of rappers are looking to get validated and it's hard to respect somebody for the bullshit they convey these days. I'm not looking at it like it's my job to change things. I look at my job as being to say something relevant. I feel good for having made the attempt to do something I felt was right. Salaam Remi did a remix on Non-Fiction. How did that happen? That was all the label. Mercury did that. I didn't know Salaam when I did the record and I still don't. I think he's dope. Do you see yourself doing more work with Prince Paul and Dan the Automator? Prince Paul is my man. All he has to do is call me and I'm there. I met Dan in the studio and he's a real cool dude. People like yourself and Prince Paul know how to have a good time and convey a message at the same time. Why does it seem like that element is missing today? Money. I come from a place where I wrote rhymes because I liked to rhyme. These kids today write rhymes because they like money. They'll go real far down the road that they're going but they're going the wrong way. How do you tell a cat that's accumulated a couple million dollars that he's going the wrong way? He looks at you like, Fuck you, I'm going the right way. I don't think Stevie Wonder ever wrote a song for a check. I don't think Donnie Hathaway ever sung a song for accolades. I think we're much more money driven than artist driven. They always say in showbusiness, the "business" is bigger than the "show." I'm looking at it optimistically and I think people are getting tired of what they have and I think they're looking for options. I think we're on the cusp of doing something else. Like what? Hip-hop. I think we're on the cusp of it not being what it is. That's a good look, just that it's not what it is. I see young kids talking about what it's not and that means a lot to me because that means they do have aspirations for it to be better and for it to mean something. I hear a lot about what's being done but I don't see a lot being done. At the end of the day, to me, music is something you feel. At the end of the day, do you get the respect you deserve? Yeah. I do. At the end of the day, I don't feel like cats owe me shit. I think what helps me to do what I do is I don't feel that way. I'm a grown man and it's no label's job to make sure I have a deal or to make sure my record's playing. At the end of the day it's up to me to do something for myself and at the end of the day, hopefully people like it. I'm beyond the days of being bitter and saying "If it wasn't for me…" I'm grateful for what I've been able to experience and that people come up to me and talk to me. I'm very grateful and I look forward to the future. Honestly, I don't even feel like I've done anything yet. I look forward to doing some stuff. Do you consider your solo album Sureshot Redemption a success? Hell yeah. That was something I did on my own. I did it out of my house. I bought a house in North Carolina. I introduced it online. This was like '96 or '97, way before there was an online community. I consider it a huge success. I probably sold 8-10,000 out of my own house. I was down South and I had stepped away from the industry and I started doing stuff on my own. I don't think I do music for a lot of the same reasons other people do. Now there's really an online market. Now it's exactly the time to do what I'm doing. There are only 10,000 of those albums in existence and I handle a lot of my own business now because I got my feet wet. If you do that, then you will have an appreciation for what's going on. That was me doing my homework. Do you see yourself and Long coming back together someday? I see the Native Tongues coming together for a Native Tongues album. That would be an all-encompassing project. That would be all of the groups together. To me, this is much bigger than me and Long. If anything, me and Long are probably at the bottom of the totem pool. I look at the Native Tongues as a microcosm of society. We make these records about empowerment and us getting along as a people. When I say "people," I'm talking about people from all places of all colors. It hurts me to say that we're not where we're supposed to be but we made these records telling people where we thought they should be. We have to show some real power and unity and control our own destiny. Black Sheep would be included in that. It seemed as though the Tribe tour went well. Yeah. I had actually opened up for their first show. I'm hoping we can put that together. How long will we have to wait for the Native Tongues album? If it was up to me, it would be done. There's a lot of chiefs in that camp. What will be the most difficult part of getting that album done? I don't even want to say. It'll probably be the personalities. It's hard to have everybody on the same agenda. Everybody has kind of moved on to be who they are and sometimes we forget the things that made us who we are. I think we all made each other who we are and once we got off the ground, we all went on to do what we do. I think together is much bigger than any one of us will ever be. What's your next move? We just shot the video and that's going to get out there a little bit. We're going to hit the road and bring the album to as many different places as we can. We have to introduce the label to people so they know what it means. I'm just looking to reintroduce myself. I hope people like what they hear. What do you want to say to everybody? I definitely want to say thanks for the love over the years. Everybody who's ever played any of our music, thank you for real. You didn't have to do that. I want cats to like the new music. Hit us on the MySpace and stay up with us. I'm going to do my best to make sure there's not as long of a hiatus. It's definitely about getting support. We definitely need your support because that's what's going to allow us to stick around. If cats aren't supporting what they're saying, then they may as well not say it. I'm hoping people recognize it on the strength of the music. Support it and we can do it again next year. http://myspace.com/blacksheep 8WM/Novakane is available anywhere you buy your online music

By Brian Kayser

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