Have any rappers reached out to you while you were away want to work when you get home or to just give you some support?
Yeah. Swizz, Busta, Dame Grease, —it’s like when it happens it is appreciated, but I don’t dwell on it. I’m like ‘Oh that’s wassup. Tell him I said what up too’ and I let it go. I pretty much got a lot of people in my corner. I’m the People’s Champ. Oh ,that was another [album] title I was gonna use too, The People’s Champ.
Is it weird seeing the rap game now and seeing most of your peers that you came in the game with just not around anymore?
I’m not gonna disrespect anybody or shout anybody out, but it’s sad the shit I’m seeing here. All we got is 106 & Park in jail. And it’s like ‘wow, this is the Top 10?’ Like really? I know it’s really not the Top 10, but it’s their Top 10. Damn yo, that’s not a good look. Not a good look at all. I do like Nicki Minaj—how she getting at em. Haven’t heard the album, but the couple of singles I’ve heard—“Did It On Em,” you know what I’m saying? That “Boom boom boom.” Some shit, “Bang”—whatever. I like her style. And Kiss got a new joint too that I’m feeling.
Speaking of Nicki, how are you feeling about Lil Wayne and Drake?
Hmmm…no comment. I don’t like Drake. It’s nothing that he did to me, He actually is talented. He’s very talented.
So you’re just not feeling his music then?
Yeah, I don’t like him. It ain’t nothing personal. I don’t like his stuff. He is talented. He has a little wordplay here and there, but when I see him and here him it’s like—‘Money, I’m not rockin with that.’
It feels like right now in hip-hop a lot of people are saying the hardcore gangsta rap element is dead. Do you feel like that’s true?
They try to block it out. But that’s what rap is. It’s not about disrespecting, but it’s the voice of the voiceless. Before I tell you what it is. To me, it isn’t tight sweaters. That’s not what rap is. That’s not hip-hop at all. Every phase went through changing up their dress styles and all that, but since Run DMC came out it’s been baggy jeans. That has not changed. So all this shit they doing now, tryna spark something new, that’s basically what it is. Tryna spark something new to get people to say yeah--to stake the claim as the innovators. The creators. Like, ‘yeah we started this so we must be hip-hop because everybody’s doing it.’ No! You got a few little motherfuckers following you, doing the same shit, but that’s not what it is man.
[Laughs] But I mean fashion has to evolve just like the music, no?
Yeah, the fucking skinny jeans and tight sweaters! Those are baby clothes. What are you shopping at Baby Gap??? [Laughs]
[Laughs] It’s just what people want to do now. Even some of the older rappers--they’re all getting their clothes tighter now?
You know, its cause they’re just following. They just want to fit in. They want to look like they’re younger I guess. Like I said, one thing about ‘real’ is that it doesn’t change. The truth doesn’t change. It was the same when Moses got the Ten Commandments as it is today. That’s the thing about the truth. That’s the thing about real. It doesn’t change and it doesn’t have to change. Now you can put it in a different book, but it’s still real. It’s still the truth. And that’s what I’m bringing to the table.
So I guess when X comes home, it’s still gonna be baggy jeans and Timbs. You’re not going to see X dancing around in some tight jeans.
I think I’m gonna wear Timberlands until I die man. They may not be the hottest thing out, but Timbs keep reinventing themselves. They keep coming up with the new colors, the different bubbles, now you can get your name on them. Timbs is still on fire right now!
Still killing it.
Yeah! And that’s all I—I do not own a pair of sneakers or shoes.
Word? Not even Air Force Ones?
No, none of that. I put on a pair of sneakers when I came to jail. They gave me these sneakers. Then, I felt like retarded. I felt retarded just having a pair of sneakers on in at least 10 years.
So I guess you’re not really influenced by anything current in hip-hop?
Yeah. It’s like normally, when I’m in the streets, I don’t look at videos. I don’t go to concerts. Nas is the only person whose concert I been to. I don’t go to shows—I don’t want to be influenced by what someone else is doing. I don’t want to be influenced by anything that anyone is doing. I want to be influenced by the people.
Then where do you still draw inspiration from?
From the people! I walk amongst the people. I hear what their complaints are. I hear what they like. They tell me what they’re looking for. I can be hanging out with about 7 or 8 guys and we’ll see something and I’ll be like ‘aight so I was right in thinking that not to go that way.’ I get to stay on the same page as the fans, because I walk amongst the fans. You can’t speak for the people unless you’re able to walk amongst the people. And how many of these rappers out here actually hang out with regular people.
Probably none.
Exactly! But I do. People see me in the mall. I might have one or two dudes with me, but they ain’t no rappers. I talk to my fans and because I’m easy to talk to, they feel comfortable in telling me what they’re looking for. ‘X when you gonna come out with this’, ‘X, you need to come out with something like this’—I hear it all the time about how they don’t like the skinny jeans and the shit that’s on the radio right now.
It seems like now, rappers are really making a trend of coming in and out of jail. I don’t know if you heard but Prodigy just came home, T.I.’s locked up right now.
How long did Prodigy do?
Prodigy did almost 3 ½ on a gun charge. He just came home.
And Ja just went in, right?
Yup. Have you had any contact with him? I know you guys had some issues in the past.
Yeah since we had issues, we’ve had contact. But I saw him at the VH1 hip-hop Honors.
Yeah I saw there was a picture of you, Foxy, and Ja altogether.
Yeah. It was like, I was sitting in the front and his wife was behind me. And I looked back and I spoke to her. And when I turned around again—actually I was getting up to leave and he was sitting there. So people were already looking at us and knew that I didn’t know he was behind me. It was quiet. So when I turned around and seen him, I could feel all the eyes on me. And I was like ‘Yo watup man’ and gave him a pound and everybody started clapping.
Did you guys have any more words?
Yeah we spoke briefly right there, but later on at the hotel we took a couple of flicks together. We cool, but he’s just not the type of nigga that I would hang with. He never was the type of nigga I would hang with. But we was cool. I’d work with you, and yeah we can go to the studio, but we just two different people.
I got you. How about Irv? Have you had any recent contact with him? I know he’s still doing music.
Yeah he expressed interest. He wanted to work with me. I got to hear what he got. But—me and Irv will always be friends. Our wives are friends, our kids play together, his parents love me—it’s deeper than our relationship. Like me and Irv can say ‘Fuck you’ to each other but we still have ties. Irv’s my nigga.
Is there one label you would sign to immediately after you came home?
I would love to go to Def Jam. But you gotta understand the way Def Jam was.
The old Def Jam?
Exactly. Where when you went to the office, you could hear music coming out of every office. When they were hungry looking for music and listening to music and actually paid attention to what people wanted and what people had to offer. When I left there I was like wow, this is strange. A bunch of interns in the offices. It was so quiet that it was eerie. So I walk around the office to see what they’re doing, and one person was doing their laundry online. This doesn’t feel like a record label. This feels like a fucking law office or something.
So what really went wrong there?
I have a few inside people who confirmed my suspicions that they were trying to make me leave. Like ‘Yeah they just wanna get you out of there. ‘ That way they can do what they wanna do and this , that, and the other. If you remember, Jay quit. He retired from rapping. But he became president of Def Jam. He gave me the call, he called me personally. So I’m like ‘yeah that’s wassup! My mans is in a position now, he’s the president of the label I’m on, we good! Next thing you know, he’s out of retirement and I’m off the label. What a coincidence.
Damn. Have you even been able to have a conversation with Jay after that? I remember when it happened.
I’ve not talked to him yet, since. But I had a show November 18th, before I got locked up--No November 12th I had the show. And somebody in the crowd was like ‘What’s up with Jay-Z’ and I was like ‘Fuck Jay-Z’. And it ended up all over the place. So he called Swizz, Swizz called me, and he tells Swizz ‘Yoo, why your man dissin me? I was gonna do a song with him’—Coulda, woulda, shoulda. Fucking bullshit. I don’t wanna hear that shit. And like ‘Yo, can you just get him to say he ain’t mean it’—NO! I’m not saying that. What I did say is if he wanna talk to me, I’m man enough to let him know why it’s ‘Fuck You’, but it’s still ‘Fuck You’! That’s what it is. I’ll let you know why, I can do that. It ain’t like you gotta worry about me running up on you shooting you. It ain’t that serious. You don’t owe me nothing. But if you want an explanation as to why it’s ‘Fuck You’, I’ll be more than happy to tell you why.
So the riff between you and Jay is actually a personal matter? I know a lot fans over the years were really curious to know if you and Hov were actually real life friends.
So the riff between you and Jay is actually a personal matter? I know a lot fans over the years were really curious to know if you and Jay were actually real life friends.
We were real good friends. He came down and heard the album, was like ‘Yeah, that’s wassup. The album’s hot. When you shoot the video?’ Directly after that he started doing some funny shit. You know, that night we went out and shot pool together. He could call me anytime. He called me one time in New York like ‘Yo I want you to come hear this Beans joint.’ I jumped in my truck. I’m a free spirit. I’m not running around with 10 people all the time. I drove down there. I lived in Upstate New York, Mount Kisco and shit. So I jumped in the Suburban, flew down there, ‘What’s up nigga? I’m here for you. That’s how I get down. We played pool there, we hung out in the studio. We ain’t get no work done, but we had a good time. Our birthdays are like a few days apart. So we had a lot in common. And the thing that’s crazy about us is our relationship was a real relationship. Because initially, I didn’t like him and he didn’t like me, so we began to battle. And the battle was like maybe 91 or 92. When he was with Original Flavor.
On top of the pool tables and all of that.
Exactly. In the pool hall in the Bronx. So we had history So it took years for us to get to the point where we were cordial. And we owe that to Irv Gotti. Irv was his man and Irv was my man. I had to tell Irv ‘Yo let me know when he got a show, so I can battle him again.’ Cause I wasn’t trying to kill him or nothing. It wasn’t beef. But I wanted to let him know that you can’t fuck with me, no matter how nice you think you are. And that was only for a few years. We realized what it really was. It was just some battle shit. We realized when you’re young like that you sometimes mistake when you battle somebody for beef. But we realized, there’s no beef involved. I don’t even know you to not like you. We earned each other’s friendship. And we became good friends. We wasn’t hanging out all the time—we two different type of niggas. But you know, if I see him somewhere we hang out.
Something DMX doesn't normally do with every single artist.
Yeah, cause I don’t fuck with too many artists.
That’s what I mean.
I fuck with Swizz Beatz. I fuck with Nas, I fuck with Busta, Cam, Ghostface, Raekwon—if we see each other somewhere, we hanging out. I’m like ‘Yo where you going’ or if they ain’t doing nothing they’ll roll with me and if I ain’t doing nothing I’ll roll with them, that type of shit.
Speaking of Nas, he actually just put out a new single. I don’t think you heard it but it’s called “Nasty” and he’s jus spitting with no hook.
Hmm, I was gonna do something like that too. See, we on the same page. I went to his show maybe 3 weeks before I got locked up. I went to see him do a show out here, so I went by. But anywhere he’s at man, I’ll go check on him. I’ll go holla at him, sit down, kick it, whatever. We are good friends. There’s been a couple of times where it’s just me, him, and our wives all went out to eat. No security.
That’s crazy. So Is there any chance that another DMX and Nas can do another record?
That’ll work. I’m glad you said that. I’m a reach out to him for this album.
You gotta make that happen.
I got about 6 songs that I left spots open for features. And I did that on purpose because whatever label I go to, they might have ideas for features. I’m come correct this time.
Belly is still a hip-hop classic. I don’t care what barbershop, what radio station, people still talk about this movie man.
Yeah, they play it on BET a lot. You know how many times I’ve seen it since I been here?
I’m saying! It’s on regular rotation now.
And they fucked up with the Belly 2. All they had was the title. Someone bought the title. Got people thinking it’s a part 2 to our movie when it’s really not. It’s just the name Belly 2. But, I been working with a couple of writers man where we can bring it back. A part 2 with a crazy story.
Oh really? With all the original characters maybe, hopefully?
No. it would really just be me, Nas and Meth. Some new hot chicks in there. But the story—the thing that most important to me with a movie is not so much the cast. It’s the story. See, this cast is important. You gotta have a good story. And it makes sense. It’ll show that I did some time for murder or whatever, and it’s really 10 years later. So it works out perfect.
I know a lot of the people that worked on the movie said that the way that Belly came out wasn’t how it was originally cut. Is that true?
The cut the budget, maybe 3 quarters of the movie. They just cut the budget right there.
Damn. Do you think it affected the storyline and how you were able to put the message out there?
Well, you know what it became a different message. Part of the original message was in there, but it also became a different message. There’s like a lot of loose ends, you know. And like the chemistry was so good, that people didn’t really focus on that. You still walked away from it thinking that you saw the entire movie. Feeling like you didn’t get cheated.
And that movie sparked the careers for a lot of people. I remember Vita, that was like the first time people saw her.
Yeah. I was trying to fuck her too. I’m like ‘we’re in this situation anyway, come on girl let’s get it for real.’ Nah we was cool though. She’s a cool girl. [Laughs]
Definitely. I have to ask how did you verse on "Money Power Respect" come about. It still rings off in the club. Anytime, people still go crazy.
I still perform that on stage too… Fuck they telling me I got to get off the phone. Before I go, let me just get these shout outs out there. I want to let the people know who my real crew is in here. These are my peoples. They good dudes. When they get out, you might see me with them so I’m just planting the seed now. X, Mac, Elbow, Bear, N-O, Sleeze. But like, this prison is different. It’s not like you’re from New York. Out here, It’s racially segregated. Its’ different races at different tables. You’re not allowed to smoke or share a cigarette with someone of a different race. It’s really weird. It’s kinda sad too. Because I like who I like. You ain’t gonna tell me, I gotta just chill with somebody just because they black. That don’t make sense to me. I made some new female friends since I been locked up. Some women who are really in my corner to support me and let me know they believe in me. Like most of my fanmail is letting me know that thye believe in me man and I can do it. They’re people praying for me. It’s incredible. It’s incredible how similar the message is in all the letters. I’ll be home soon, peace kid!
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