You’ve explored your own narrative of hip-hop over these last 20 years or so and have experimented with many influences inside and out of hip-hop. But there has been much evolution within the genre in these last years. What are your opinions of how the millennial generation has developed hip-hop, particularly with what is called “trap” music now? Do you think hip-hop music and its culture is in a healthy place right now?
The main reason I started making records was because no one I knew of had made the record I wanted to hear. That’s changed. This question puts me in a Rip Van Winkle wormhole. The last time I really hung out with Dante (Yasiin Bey/Mos Def) was the first time Odd Future played in NY. One of my best friends DJ Preservation called me and said “Dante said if Mike is in town, call him. If anybody is gonna like this band it’s him.”
The show was in the basement of Webster Hall, I think. Downstairs it was probably 50 kids in front who knew what was up. The rest of the room was industry (last time I saw music critic Jon Caramonica was at that show). The show was typical out of control mayhem: a million kids on stage, Earl Sweatshirt not there, bad sound, etc. But Tyler, the Creator didn’t fuck up once. In the middle of all the mess, he cut through like a razor.
That was a long time ago now. Light years’ worth of stuff has come and gone. A lot of it I missed. Some stuff I’ve caught, which I loved.
I always listen to my friends the most. Rebelmatic, Run the Jewels, Rob Sonic, DJ Preservation and his Dr. Yen Lo collaboration with KA, anything Fred Ones is up to, Saul Williams, the Antipop Consortium crew (M. Sayyid, High Priest and Beans), French rapper Casey, La Canaille, Omega Moon, Vijay, Kassa Overall, Tyshawn Sorey, No Surrender, Jim Kelly, Tai Allen, Suede Jenkins; it’s a long list. I wore out that first Death Grips record hard and am doing the same with Moor Mother Goddess now, Ho99o9, Gaika and Denzel Curly.
And also, all the guys that Busdriver has been working with or is around; Open Mike Eagle and Milo, in particular. Open Mike Eagle’s song “95 Radios” – I keep going back to that track. There’s also Westside Gunn, Ratking, King Krule, Yves Tumor, Livity Sound. Often I get overwhelmed and I go back to the radio, Hot 97, WBUR (heavy NPR), Guerrilla Grooves Radio, and then mostly I use one of those apps that links you to radio stations all over the world. I’ll type in a random country and genre and surf stations. In terms of trap music, anytime hip-hop has been claimed by the South I’ve been happy.
Most of my mom’s side of the family is from North Carolina. That side has always influenced my music from the first record (“Off the Coast of Okrakoke” and “Tragic Mulatto is Neither”) My musical North Carolina/D.C. experience was church and blues to an extent. Anytime hip-hop goes deep to its origins, I’ve been into it. I think it was David Banner that was like “I’m from Mississippi, the place where your mama left etc…” I like that turn. I’ve always been a huge DJ Screw fan, so from crunk to trap to whatever’s next, I always find something in that. Solange didn’t have those Master P quotes on her record just to be cute.
Like any big trend, there is a lot that becomes unlistenable and there’s always subject matter that’s a billion percent unproductive. But when someone can cut through correctly with nothing more than an 808 and what is essentially a series of haiku and say something that makes millions of people bounce, it’s worth paying attention to. More than I have, in fact.
I traveled a lot when I was young. I lived in India for a year when I was 16. I lived in Zimbabwe for a stint when I was 19. I was always expecting the next wave of great music to come from somewhere else. Now it seems like everything comes from everywhere all at once. Maybe that’s better. We know we are in a post-leadership era; maybe we are also a post-arts movement. How do I feel about hip-hop as a whole? That’s like asking about the weather around the globe; some places it’s sunny, some places it sucks.
There is a huge theatrical element to your music, which I think stems from your performance poetry beginnings. It makes me wonder if you’ve ever considered a step outside of your musical perimeters into other mediums like film and television? Have you ever been considered for roles in film? Have you thought about such a transition?
I’ve done several more out of necessity than for a passion for acting. It comes relatively easy to me, or easy enough for me to do the job when asked. But being a professional actor would be a whole other can of worms. I had a slightly Victorian view of acting and looked down on it a bit until I did a TV pilot. TV and film is crazy because there is all this downtime and then suddenly you have to be on. Watching people change gears so flawlessly is pretty impressive.
I’ve been in three theatrical productions all with some hip-hop element, so it hasn’t been much of a stretch. I had the honor of performing Sekou Sundiata’s play Blessing the Boats. It was with Carl Hancock Rux and Will Power. We did a small run in LA and NY, which was fun. The director was the mind-blowing Rhodessa Jones, the sister of Bill T. Jones. The woman is timeless. The first day of rehearsal began with handstands – she doing them, us trying and failing.
Can you discuss what your academic engagements are like as a professor of English? I imagine such a profession to be quite a serious and rigid one, something incredibly different from your work as a music artist, which is all about improvisation, creative abandonment, and a certain recklessness…Can you describe the creative proclivities of your academic profession?
Unfortunately, I haven’t taught at the university level since 2010 or so. I still do workshops in high schools every once in a while. Mostly in the Paris suburbs. Teaching is like DJing in the sense that the more researched and prepared you are beforehand, the more fluid you can be during the class. Of course, that’s true for just about any profession or skill.
There are also very strong literary influences and references in your music. Can you discuss a little some of the books that have influenced you in the past as well as ones you are currently reading that have captured your interest and imagination?
At the moment, Duriel Harris, LaTasha Diggs, Tyehimba Jess and Paul Beatty, Paul Beatty, Paul Beatty. Many of my literary heroes are people my age, some of them I was lucky enough to know at some point in my life. When I did Welcome to the Afterfuture, I was reading Colson Whitehead, Paul Beatty, Kevin Young and Sharan Strange, so their content all slipped into that record, along with older heroes Bob Kaufman and Ishmael Reed. They are always with me actually. Easy Listening 4 Armageddon was all about Jayne Cortez for me – the song “Kissin’ Kecia” is a serious bite off of one of her poems. Tony Medina, Tony Medina, Tony Medina and Diggs, Diggs, Diggs.
How important is the visual component of music for you? Are you in any way engaged in the visual aesthetics of creating your music?
I have had a lot of problems with that. I had such specific ideas for a long time that I was never able to relinquish control to someone else nor have the skill myself like Priest and M. Sayyid from Antipop Consortium to directly apply my aesthetic in that way. It’s come about in album covers. But with videos, I had to let go completely. It took me years. That’s why there are so few.
Do you have any plans to revert to recording entirely solo under your own name as you first did 20 years ago? If you had to work exclusively from a solitary point with just you and your instruments without anyone’s contribution and input today, what do you think that album would sound like 20 years on since your solo debut?
Yes, I’m in the middle of recording three EPs right now. When my ego is out of control, I can get a little Kool Keith and feel like I did everything before everybody else. Obviously, that’s not at all the case, but I did get enough ideas across before anyone else did. Some folks came through with the same or similar ideas later but with much better execution and, frankly, the adage is true: “It’s not about who had the idea first, it’s about who did it best.” The one advantage of doing it first or being one of the first is: I feel if I put out a record now and it sounded like a bunch of stuff people know, I feel like I already did a version of that somewhere so I wouldn’t be ripping anyone off. So we’ll see. I’ve written two graphic novels that I’m still polishing.
One I wrote in 2012 called The Indelible Stench of Mr. 4, which follows a fictional character through the Black American Experience in the Soviet Union between 1922 and 1943. The other is called Fat Dracula. Both those graphic novels have music that goes with them. Also in 2012, I did a show of chopped and screwed sea shanties. There is a record for that which needs to be finished as well. Focus, focus, focus while hustling to feed my family. Some people are better at it than others. But it will get done.