Midwest Leak Magazine

Le’Deana: Hey! What’s going on with you?

Scarface: There’s not much going on in my world. I’m glad to be getting back to it. I’ve been out of my element for a while. I’m currently working on my next album. It’s going to be called “The Habit.” Even if I don’t sound like it, I’m bubbly all over. I’m working on the project of a lifetime. It’s the best album I’m ever going to do in my life. This album is for me. You know like you do something great and say, “This one’s for you Mom!” This one’s for me!

Le’Deana: Who are you working with?
Scarface: I keep my production team open. I use one producer, I’ve worked with since the beginning of my career. Bido is probably the reason I got into the business. He was the sole reason. He was my manager. But my production team is whoever I pick. I take a different approach to doing albums. I call Darrell Sloan and Eric Beasley from New York and I’ll call Enocho and Tone Capone. Sloan and Beasley get all their producers together and bring me beats. I pick the ones that I like.

Le’Deana: Do you prefer to stick to your traditional approach rather than working with who’s new and relevant?
Scarface: I just pick what I like. I rap to what’s authentic to me.

Le’Deana: Do you think that the new school of rappers shows the proper respect to rappers that have been established in the game as yourself?
Scarface: It’s not a fight between the older rappers and the newer rappers. I don’t want the publications to try to make us war with each other. I respect the entire community as a whole. What’s disappointing to me is the powers that be. What I mean by that is the powers that be. The big record labels and radio stations and video stations and the world wide web.

Le’Deana: Why is that?
Scarface: I feel like they are single handedly trying to destroy black music as a whole. Out of all of the groups from the 90s, 80s, 70s, 60s, 50s, and 40s…there were always groups. Now there are no groups! Who stole the show? If Mays and Frankie Beverly were the best groups, why didn’t someone pick the torch up? When I was growing up, If you pulled 100 people out of their houses, 70-80 percent of them knew how to play an instrument. If you did that now I’m willing to bet you none of them can play but 98 percent of them are trying to rap! I was watching a documentary on TV One with the Barkays and they were talking about how rap killed the R and B era and I understand what they’re saying because I don’t see companies signing groups. If Jodeci was such a big ass group in the 90s, then why didn’t someone mimic that group in the 2000s?

Le’Deana: If rap destroyed R and B and you’re a part of rap, then what role did you play in this situation?
Scarface: I didin’t play a role in destroying it, I actually protected the craft. I never ever in my life wanted to follow anything that was trendy. I mean no disrespect with this at all, but when MC Hammer was going “Uh oh, here come the Hammer!” NWA was doing them. When NWA was doing them, Young MC was doing him. When Young MC was doing him, we were doing us. Just because music is trendy doesn’t mean you have to switch your style and be that. You had Das Efx and Twista and Bone Thugs [rapping fast]. When those people did that fast rapping stuff, anybody that came behind them and tried to do it was wrong!

Le’Deana: So people are jumping in other people’s lanes instead of creating their own?
Scarface: Down here locally, we’ve got Screwheads. The inventor of the Screw heads was DJ Screw. Anybody that came out trying to slow their music down was trying to be someone that they weren’t. I believe that Lil’ Keke was the inventor of that style along with ESG. I’ll exclude Z-Ro, K-Rino, Trae, Slim Thug and a few other rappers. Everyone else is trying to mimic their style. The 84s and paint dripping and all that? Anyone else doing that is trying to be them!
Everybody had their lane back then, now they’re not being themselves. Now, I say it’s a conspiracy to destroy black music. If the Roots is the only band that’s getting any recognition then there’s something wrong.

Le’Deana: What can we do about it?
Scarface: It’s going to have to be a change of power. If we want to change anything, we have to change who’s in charge of our music.

Le’Deana: How did VH1 attempt to resolve the situation with Hip Hop Honors with you?
Scarface: I had a conversation with Fab Five Freddie, but what they’re going to do is what they’re going to do. He assured me that he wouldn’t have us looking country and stupid.

Le’Deana: Do you think that’s the perception that the people at VH1 have of people in the south?
Scarface: I honestly do. Like everyone down here’s strippers on poles and eating fried chicken. But there’s nothing I can do about it other than not be a part of it. They don’t mean any harm, they just don’t know.

Le’Deana: Who’s job is it to educate them?
Scarface: If you want to be educated, call someone that’s educated in that field. If I want to know anything about New York culture I will call someone from New York. If I want to know about Japanese culture I’m going to call someone from Japan. If you want to know something about Southern culture, I think it would be in the best interest of anybody to go to somebody from down there. If you really wanted to do something for the people from the south you should have had somebody from down in the south to do it down in the south. But you’ve got all these people in all these different spots representing for here and they’re not from here. Fab Five Freddie is super New York. I wouldn’t do a New York show based down here in Texas because you get it fucked up. My image of New York is a lot of people, a lot of taxis, and a lot of artists. There may be another side of New York that the New Yorkers want to show.