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6/29/2006 What's up? I'm good. I'm feeling real frosty right now. I'm in LA, feeling good, blowing on those good trees. How was your album release party? It was real frosty. Sugarhill Gang, Craig G, and a lot of old-school dudes came through. The album is the most anticipated album on MySpace for 2006, so that's a good look. I've been getting a lot of positive and negative feedback. It really doesn't matter. We keep it moving. Are you liking LA? I like the atmosphere and the exotic trees. How do you feel about how Have You Seen Rampage? right now? I'm real happy with it. Being the CEO, I can do whatever I want. Why did you title it Have You Seen Rampage? I was reading XXL and they had me on the milk carton. I knew I had to get back out there. They put the spark in my backpack to make it happen. It's all good seeing that. I laughed at it and I had my jokes with it, but it was also the key for me to get back to the music. That was the inspiration to get back to the music. XXL did that and I was like, "I need to get up off my ass and jump back in the lab." What were you doing before you got back in the studio? I was doing some ghostwriting. I have shitloads of producers with me. I was selling records. I sold the "I'm a Hustler" record to Cassidy. I was also the one who broke the record in Philadelphia. I've been doing a lot of things in the industry. I've been ghostwriting and producing. What was your inspiration for "Native New Yorker"? I have to rep where I'm from. I'm repping Brooklyn all day. When I was growing up, that was one of the records that was very successful and I had my producer come in and hook it up and I just took it back to New York. How do you feel about New York right now? New York is on the rise again. Everybody has their turn. We got Busta, Papoose, and Flipmode's the squad. How did Busta help you with this album? He helped show me the way to be independent and the value of doing it yourself. He showed me a lot of the legal side and how to do my own shit. He taught me how to take the industry by storm and not waiting on anybody. That's what it was. What made you want to go with Sureshot for this release? I didn't want to mess with no majors. Everybody who's independent is selling and everybody who's major is flopping. I decided to collaborate with the check-writer Chris Landry. Now I'm all over the web and selling 10,000 the first week out the gate. What are your goals for the record? I'm about to shoot these videos. That's the number-one goal. I'm also out here looking at doing some film as well for one of my joints off the album called "No Love in the Room." I have a couple of videos coming and a couple of videos that are popping. I have another artist. Lady Day, coming out too. She sings. How overdue is your solo album? My album is ten years overdue. It's been a minute because I was getting out of a label situation and contracts and I wanted to make sure that I didn't owe anybody any albums or anything. It was actually frustrating, but outside of that, I was staying busy writing and selling tracks to other artists. I was just getting my work on and getting my publishing up. I'm just into everything like real estate. I'm just doing a whole bunch of stuff to keep it moving. I didn't want to bring this album to a major because they don't understand. All the biggest records that are selling are independent. It took so long for this record to come out. Were you ever going to quit? I never thought about quitting. I've been doing this since I was 16. I have platinum records and medals from being in this game from being down with Flipmode Squad. I never thought about quitting because this is how I feed my daughters and how I keep my lights on. Were you at the "Touch It" video shoot? No. I was in the studio recording my album. What are your thoughts on how Busta's handled everything? He's handled it how he's handled it. The moral of the story is getting back to the music. I can't speak on something when I wasn't there. He's handled it good. I don't get into things like that. I just keep it moving. It's about the music for me. What are your predictions for The Big Bang? I'm sure Busta will do two-million records, maybe three. He has a lot of heavy hitters on there. I wish my cousin the best. Flipmode is the squad forever. We're just working and getting back to the music. That's what me and Busta are about. We keep them partying in the clubs. Flipmode's the squad forever. We're not about no negatives. Flipmode is what it is. Rah Digga seems extremely loyal to Busta and Flipmode when I asked her if Busta's helped her as much as he should have. Has Busta done everything he should have to help you? What did Rah Digga say? She said Busta has to take care of himself first before he can help others. I'm going to elaborate on that. Busta has to take care of himself before he takes care of others. Busta's done a lot to help me and I wish him the best in life. He's always going to be my cousin and nothing's ever going to change. Like Lambo's and big chains, we rock together. He's my brother. A lot of cliques have their problems, but Flipmode seems very loyal. How important is loyalty to Flipmode? Loyalty in Flipmode is when we have problems, we make records about it. When we have beef with one another, we go in the lab and make records about it. That's the best way to resolve the beef. Me and Digga may not talk today or me and Busta may not talk today, but we'll talk later and it's all love. The music keeps us grounded. We don't stay in no beef. Every crew is different. We're all just trying to get our catalog's up. We're trying to keep our Flipmode name on top of the game and start our companies and put on our people because we have a lot of people with us. Do you see a Flipmode album happening? Hell yeah. We actually recorded one for J Records. I don't know what's going to happen with it, but when Busta makes the call, it's definitely going to go down. We've been putting it in and we've shut down a lot of people on stages. Does Flipmode get the respect it deserves today? Hell yeah. Everybody knows who Flipmode Squad is. Every kid from every part of the world to Alaska knows who we are. We've been all over the world twenty times. We're a group that's grounded. It's like tailor-making a song. We watch what we put out and we watch what it does. If it feels good, then we put it out. If we don't, it goes in the catalog. We definitely get the respect. What's Spliff Star been up to? Choking on trees and putting his album together. You know how Spliff Star is. He's keeping it moving. Everybody in Flipmode is about music. We're all doing the music, we're all working out, and we're all doing what we do. It's music. Everything is cool. We're all trying to sell records. Everybody's on the grind. Everybody's on the clock. How's your real estate doing? I have a lot of real estate and I have a barbershop. I do it all, man. I produce, write, I do it all. I have a strong-ass production team that's about to murder the industry. It takes time, but it's going to happen. What are your goals for your label Deep Freeze? We're going to freeze up the game. My label is diverse. We're doing rock and we're doing all types of music. I have a lot of imprints. We're looking real frosty. We have a lot of things popping. What's the next move for Rampage? After I do this album, I'm putting out another album. It's going to be a double-CD. I have a lot of records on the rise. I'm going hard. I'm not going home. Sorry. Those who want to hate, I'm not going to stop. I'm going to keep on banging the streets. I'm dying to put these records out and I have a lot of records with a lot of people. Have you seen Rampage? Hey, you spoke to Rampage. I want people to go get my album. I have twenty-seven bangers on there. Go check your boy out. You can hit me direct if you want to do a record and we'll work it out. What do you want to say to all your fans out there? I want them to rush the store and go buy the Flipmode catalog and my album. Keep it moving and keep buying these Rampage records. Stay in touch and keep loving me and showing me love. I love them. Come to all my shows when I do them in your city, town, or country. Let's get back to the music. Make friends with Rampage at http://myspace.com/lieutenantrampage

By Brian Kayser

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