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8/15/2005 What's good man? Everything's been real cool, I'm chilling. How are you feeling now that "Walk Like a Man" is out? Everything is good. I feel really blessed to be in a position to put something out like that and just have that opportunity. That's something I never expected from you… It was something I never expected either. I'ts not something I've always wanted to do, but the opportunity presented itself. It was fun. It was actually a lot more fun than I anticipated. The cast was great, the crew was great. It cost a lot of money, but at the end of the day, it was fun, whether I make my money back or not. Do you want to do more films? Oddly enough, yeah. I just don't want to spend my own money on it. I need to find people to give me money to make movies. I probably wouldn't act in it being that I'm not the best actor. But just seeing filmmakers be able to make their vision come alive is amazing. How much of what happens to Murray and Pete in the film is drawn off of your life? Not a whole lot man. I didn't have anything to do with the script. The people behind it listened to "Walk Like a Man" and came out with what they did. A lot of it is just made up based off of what they thought. Looking at the song "Walk Like a Man," how true is that? To a certain extent. All of the stories I tell on my albums are mostly truth. Sometimes I mix it up and combine different things. Also the names are changed to protect the innocent and the guilty. You've always had that brutal honesty, how important is honesty in your music? That's the most important thing to me at all times. I can't even over-emphasize that. That's the most important thing to me, just to be honest in all of my music. You always seem to be speaking directly to the people… Aside from being honest, that's the second most important thing. What's the point of me making a song if I'm not talking to the people or listening? I don't make music just for myself. I'm not, per se, catering to my fans. I'm going to tell them what I want to tell them, but I'm going to talk to them. I hope it never comes off like I'm talking down to my fans and the kids. With the title "Walk Like a Man," do you feel that there's too much immaturity in the game? Yeah, I think a lot of immaturity, but more a lack of responsibility. I appreciate everybody, but I appreciate everyone when you are who you are. I have friends that are gangbangers. And if you're going to be a gangbanger, I want you to gangbang to the best of your abilities, as ignorant as that sounds. I don't want to hear you complaining about going to jail, or the police harassing you, or getting shot at, that's the life you chose, that's what being a man is about. I don't care what you do, I'm not here to judge anyone. I don't look at my friends that are gangbangers any less than I look at my friends that are lawyers. Don't complain about what you bring on yourself that's what "Walk Like a Man" is about. There's no excuses, you don't need any help. And that song was about not having to have a weapon to feel safe or be a man. That song was also about me taking myself out of a position I was in in my neighborhood where I felt like I had to carry a gun. But at the end of the day, I didn't have to live in my neighborhood and I didn't have to carry a gun. At the end of the day, I'm not a gangbanger, I'm a rapper. After I got off tour, I didn't come home. That's the whole thing. If you're a lawyer, don't complain about having to go to law school and the long hours. 50 Cent takes responsibility for all of his actions for the most part, and I respect that. When Game dissed him, he took responsibility. He didn't say "why?" or he didn't say "I have a kid, let's squash the beef." That's what he does, and I appreciate people that stand by that, regardless if it's 50 Cent of Lil' Wayne. As long as you are 100% who you are and what you portray, then I have no problem with you. Bringing it back to honesty, if you're honest with who you are and what you do, I have no problem with it. There's a good variety on soundtrack to "Walk Like a Man," how did you go about choosing what went on? The songs picked themselves. Everybody knew that I put myself in a financial hole with this project. I wanted to give the kids an incentive to buy the film with the soundtrack because I couldn't just sell a 25-minute film by itself and hope to make my money back. Everybody just came through and donated a song. And they didn't have to give me songs, but I really appreciate it that they came through for me. I put it out to all my friends, and whoever had the songs in by the deadline is who I took. Is there a reason why there's not many Living Legends on the soundtrack? No, that's just the way it happened. What made you want to get E-40 on the "Hustler Remix?" It's something I've always wanted to do since 1997. He's been my favorite rapper, I just needed the money to do a song with E-40. It's always been something that I've wanted to do. Are you happy with how it came out? I'm so happy. That makes it all worth it. How was it working with John Cena? He's a great guy. He came through. He's a true Hip Hop fan and a real human being. One of the top-3 people I've ever met in my life. His persona, his image, the way he carries himself, his demeanor…he's a great human being, aside from being a great rapper and dope Hip Hop Head. His work ethic, everything is just extremely admirable. It was just a pleasure to work with him. And who's Chingo Bling? He's an independent rapper from Houston. I feel his work and I'm a big fan of his. I tried to cover all the bases of my spectrum of Hip Hop that I like. Get three people from three totally different worlds that I respect their work ethics and that's putting it down. Chingo has been putting it down. He's been killing it. Maybe a lot of kids who listen to me don't really know Chingo Bling or respect Chingo Bling, or E-40, or John Cena, but I was hoping to give them all a chance to tell what they do and why they do it for 16 bars. Do you feel like you're ever boxed in and expected to sound a certain way? I don't think I could ever let my fans down. I've done songs with El-P, Atmosphere, and E-40. To me, I'm all over the place as it is, so I don't think any step I take will be too far from my fans. And I would never change what I talk about. I would never change for anybody. I'm like an instrument. My fans know how I sound over a 9th Wonder beat, Atmosphere beats, and Grouch beats. I'm a saxophone, so it doesn't matter what you put me over. If you're truly a fan of a saxophone, you may not like the way it's played a certain way, or a certain note, but you can't say it's not a saxophone. And at the end of the day, I'm always going to be my instrument, and I'm always going to bring my style into whatever I work on. I feel like I could make a song with Lil' Jon. It would be like a "Bad Man." It wouldn't be a "bitch, suck my dick, lick my balls." I would let him be him and I'll be me. I'm not opposed to working with Lil' Jon, or Timbaland, or the Neptunes, and I also think my fans would appreciate that. Lil' Jon makes some good music, but I don't think my fans probably agree with certain messages he's portraying. As long as I'm being me, I think they're open-minded to listen to whoever I work with. What did you want to give your fans with "Felt 2?" I was just trying really hard to give the fans what they wanted. That was one of the most-asked questions over the last couple years of my life. "When's "Felt 2" coming out?" I just didn't want them to be disappointed. Every time I work with Slug and Ant, I learn so much. Every time I work with Ant, I learn so much and I grow as a musician. And when the next record comes out, hopefully everyone can see that I've grown. I just humbled myself and worked with two people I feel as masters of my art. And professionally, I wanted to make sure everyone who asked about "Felt 2" was happy. I've only talked to one person who thought the first "Felt" was better. As long as no one's disappointed and we kept the legacy alive and we can make another one someday, that's all I want to do. And everyone has something fun to listen to for the summer. Which one do you like better? I can't even pick. They're two different experiences. I'm feeling "Felt 2" because it's a different experience, but when I listen to "Felt 1," it brings back so many memories. Every project I do is not mechanical; I put a lot of emotion into it. "Felt 1" was a fun time in my life, and so is "Felt 2," and "The 9th Edition." I can't say which one is better, they're just two different moments in my life. How was it working with Slug and Ant? At the end of the day, I disagree with a lot of the things they do. But that's also me learning musically. At the end of the day, I just stopped and let them do what they do. I was in Minneapolis, on their turf. I stepped back and let Ant produce and be Ant, and Slug be Slug. And in a certain way, they let me be me. And remember I'm like a saxophone, Ant can tell me to step in the booth and hit this note. If he says something is off, I'm going to fix it, I'm not arrogant. I didn't come to Minneapolis to do a Murs album. I worked with them to come in and fit in their program. And I'm such a strong personality that you can't fight it. I'll hit that certain note, and I'm still Murs, and everybody's going to be happy. I think that's what I brought to the project. And they brought a certain direction and vibe, and it all came together. The first "Felt" was a tribute to Christina Ricci, how come "Felt 2" was a tribute to Lisa Bonet? Last time it was a white girl, this time it had to be a black girl, and that's the one we agreed on. Any hints as to who the girl will be for "Felt 3?" We actually haven't even talked about it. It'll probably take a year and a half before we talk about it again. And you're working on another album with 9th Wonder right? That's what the word on the streets is. Did you start it? I guess you can say it's in the works. All I can say is that it's called "Murray's Revenge." I know that much. Will there be other producers on it? No, it's me and 9th. How is it working with 9th? It's always evolving. It's changing. I can only speak off of "3:16" right now, and it was good. We had a good time. Is there a release date for "Murray's Revenge?" Real soon. That's all I can say. How do you feel today when you hear "The Beginning of the End?" It's different for me, because I can't listen to it like everybody else can. When I listen to it, I think about the girl I was dating at the time, the tours I was doing at the time, the engineer, the producer, what we talked about…it's not really music for me, it's kind of like a time capsule. How I feel about it and how you feel about it are two different things. It's more of a feeling. And I think that if the right music comes out at the right time, it's captured in that moment forever. And that's why people get so heated and passionate when they debate music, because they're trying to debate the actual song, but you can't make someone else feel what you were feeling when you heard that song. That song might have just hit you at the right time. I think the song is good, and you might think it's great, but it's because you might have just finished a date with the girl of your dreams, and it just caught you at the right moment, and I might have been having a bad day. When you heard that song for the first time, it just caught you in that moment. Everyone can recognize a good song, but when it gets close to your heart, I think it's the emotion that you were feeling. Will you and Shock G get down again? Shock quit working in the studio, so it's probably not possible. I'm definitely his friend for life. That's one of my buddies and I love him to death, but I don't know if we're ever going to make another song. But it wouldn't be out of the ordinary for us to perform at the same place at the same time. You've always been independent, what's been the hardest part about that for you? I guess everybody says not getting the respect you deserve and not being heard like you think you should be heard. That's the obvious ones. The other one is not having any structure, being able to do whatever you want to do whenever you want to do it. That's kind of scary; having too much freedom is probably it. Trying to decide what to do next, and you can end up making a movie that costs a lot of money because that's what you want to do. Technically, that wasn't the best financial situation for me. But you get in a place where you love your music so much and you feel that you deserve to be able to do this, but it's financially an unsound plan. I lost money, but I did what I wanted to do. Had I been on a label, I would have had the money to do it and it would have gotten out to more people…you probably have too much room to hang yourself. How important has touring been to your career? I don't know. I really don't know. To my life, it's been extremely important. It's good to get out and be able to see things, especially coming from where I'm from, just coming from L.A. It's good to get outside of the spot, because there's no place like this in the world and you don't really appreciate it until you leave it, and you don't understand it fully until you leave it. As far as sales, I don't know how important it is to selling albums. There's people who never tour and sell a million records, and there's people like me who tour a lot and don't sell a million records. I can't tell whether it was the press, or the tours, or the music I made, or being on Def Jux. All of it added to it I guess, and I don't know which one was a major factor. I just can't tell. How have you grown from the days of selling your cassettes? I'm just a better rapper, technically. I know how to make songs, I know about cadence, I know about timing, I know about breath control. I've just made sure that I've gotten better every time. And I still don't think I'm that good. There's always room for improvement. If you were to ask me to go back and tell you the negative things of "End of the Beginning," I could give you a whole list. There's parts I can always here where I was messing up. I'm just a better rapper than I was, and I try to be a better rapper every day when I wake up, because that's what my fanbase pays me to do. They don't pay me to sit on my ass all day and buy clothes and jewelry and cars and play Playstation, even though I like to do most of that stuff. They pay me to become a better rapper. They want me to keep doing the same thing, but I think they want me to keep getting better at doing the same thing. So that's my goal to myself and to the people who spend their hard-earned money to purchase my product. I try to get better, and I think I have been. You can say that you don't like what I'm saying, but you can't say that I've become a worse rapper, technically. Are you still skateboarding? When I can, not as much as I used to. I'm getting a little old. What would you be doing if you weren't rapping? Working at a record store. I've never seen a lot of interviews on you, do you keep a low-profile on purpose? Yeah. I've kind of been on hiatus. I only agreed to do interviews for "Walk Like a Man" because I was losing so much money on this, I wanted to make sure that as many people knew about this as possible. But I'm not really the biggest fan of the media at all. I can't say I'm not a fan of the media, because I read every Hip Hop magazine and a lot of the Hip Hop sites, and I like to read interviews on my favorite rappers. Maybe it's just that I think I'm not that important, or I just like keeping to myself. I've always been a loner kind of dude. So I guess that answers a lot of peoples questions about me and Living Legends. I've always been a by-myself kind of dude. I do what I want, when I want to do it. I'm an independent rapper because I'm an independent person. What do you want to say to your fans out there? Thank you.

By Brian Kayser

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