Ladies and gentlemen, this is the Sincast, I'm your host Max1, Maximus Onesimus for short, and um, I'm gonna be here chilling, dialoguing with the man Kwame. If you don't know Kwame, then you need to go back and do some checking. If you do know Kwame, then you're going to appreciate this. Kwame.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I hear some background noise. Please don't mind the background noise, I see on the street. Oh, hey, when did you fall in love with hip hop?
And what was it that made you fall in love in the first place? Hit us. Honestly, I was seven years old playing with ballwalk figures in my best friend's house and rappers the light came on the radio and it's been a wrap ever since. Like, I can remember it as if it happened yesterday.
Work. Were you always in MC or did you DJ paint dance? Come on now. See, my ever coming up, you didn't pick and choose one thing.
All the elements, the whole culture, you had to do everything. It wasn't like, oh, I just rap. So I used to break. I used to write.
I used to rhyme. I used to beatbox. I used to DJ and I did everything with the same amount of passion. You know, I was just hip hop.
Word. How old were you when you inked up your first seat of papyrus? Eight, nine years old. I don't know if I was writing them.
I think it was more free talent. And we'd be like the school bus or the lunchroom. And I would do some free style in these rhymes. But then when I started taking it seriously, I would say 13.
It was your favorite five-year blocks in the history of the hip hop. There's nothing like ham and rap for the very first time. 1979 to say 84. That five years was the greatest to me because that time, everything was brand new.
Anything after that, you're trying to do what you know now. 85 to 91, that was the age of self discovery for me. You know, this is me really loving rap and actually becoming a public figure and a contributor to the music that I love. Then 91 to 95, I was considered a dark period in my life where gaining world notoriety for the music that I do and then moving it all and relearning myself when it comes to hip hop.
Then you got the 95 to 2000 blocks where it's re-emerging in the culture that I love. Who are the biggest influencers on you as an MC? I didn't have a single influencer head, maybe four MCs that have influenced me equally. Liquid, Meli-Mel, Big Daddy Kane, Cool Jiva.
Biggest influencer on you as a producer. Number one influencer is not a hip hop producer. Number one producing influencer's print. Number one hip hop influencer is Malcolm McClellan in the world famous for printing.
Do you remember the first time that you heard yourself on the radio or you got the call that someone else had heard you on the radio? I remember vividly the very first time I heard myself on the radio. I was in my best friend at the time, department. Every Friday night we listened to the Mr.
Magic Rap Attack Show on WBLF in New York. I don't think that first album was out yet, but the promo copies had gone out. And we were hoping to hear the first single on the radio maybe or whatever. But as the night went on, we stopped hoping and we were just in a regular conversation.
And in the background, I'll wreck it off from my first album and call. You got to get down late on the rap attack. And I've never had a feeling like that ever in my life to hear one of my records on my favorite show. We were one step from literally destroying his apartment.
We lost our mind, like jumping up and down, screaming. The neighbors came like, what's going on again? Hi, what about Yoam TV raps? Yoam TV raps was never a big deal to us.
In New York, there was a show called Video Music Box. It's been running in New York since 1982. And so the New York team, we saw our videos first on Video Music Box. There was so many firsts on Video Music Box.
Yoam TV raps looked like a cheap, knock off gun. We definitely unimpressed. Kwame, I hope you can hang with us. But paired on me, we got to jump into some tracks.
We're back and I'm building with the man Kwame. Let's talk again. What's your favorite Kwame album and why? I would like to say my first album, but looking back, I think I go with my last album.
I think I need them. Because I think I need them to meet with me going back. It was the record that no one really heard. I think if that record had the chance to have gotten heard at the time, it would have been greatly appreciated.
What's your favorite Kwame song and why? Favorite song would definitely be Push the Panic button on the first album because that record embodied who I was as a lyricist at the time. To me, it was about the beat and the rhyme. And all of the lighter tone records were made to sell records.
As a producer, what is your favorite piece of work to date? It's weird. It's not a famous, it's not anything that's got real big. A record that I did for artists named Algebra and it's a record called Can I Keep it?
Dude, you worked with a wide variety of artists. Who was the most fun to work with? That's a man. Who was the hardest to work with?
That's a man. That's a man. You've been involved in just about every aspect of the industry. What do you enjoy the most?
100% sitting down with an artist, coming up with an idea and making a great record. I love meeting and working with artists. I love it. Like to the point, I dream about it.
That's how much I love it. Are there any MCs, producers, singers that you'd love to work with, but you have not yet had the chance to work with? Singers, I would love to work with Alicia Keith. I guess the top of my list.
I would love to work with Alicia because I just think that the type of record that I know I would be able to make with her would embody all the things that I do. Can you pinpoint the key to your success and your longevity? I learned that you can't do everything at one time immediately. And when you do, the more you do, and the quicker you do it, the quicker you burn out.
So in saying that, when I was doing strictly being an artist, it was about being an artist being as different as I possibly could be having the most different style. And when you do speak to that, it soon becomes a fat. And when that fat goes, you tend to go with it. So as a producer, I made it my business to never stick to the same style, never stick to the same format.
You know, like when I did On Fire for Lloyd Bank, people thought I was gonna make a G unit producer. If you notice, I've never done a G unit record again. As a matter of fact, there's a G unit record that I've done that's out right now that Tony Ayo put out called Candy Man. I found out about that record two weeks ago when my friend said, I know you didn't approve this record.
And then I heard that Tony Ayo, Candy Man, I didn't dislike it at all. But it was a beat that I did five years ago that Yayo picked, never used, and finally put out. You know, you have a street video and everything too. But it wasn't like, okay, I was pitching beats to G unit.
And it's not like I wouldn't, but I didn't want to just rely on that success. And if you notice a lot of producers that worked with them, they rely on strictly picking another beat from them. You'll never hear from them again. So they're sitting around waiting for 50 to put them back on.
No, I'm not that guy, you know, and I made it a goal to work with any and everybody. Like I don't dislike anybody to the point where I'm not going to work with them. And it's funny, because I cannot be the biggest fan of it. And that will make me want to work with them more because my thing is make me make a record to make me like you.
Because I think every artist deserves a good record. And that's always been my motto. What's next for you in the immediate future? Immediate future.
There's a single featuring Beanie Man from this new R&B artist on Motown named Yolanda Renee. I was real excited about it because it's more of a reggae vibe. And I haven't had any reggae vibe records out like that. And Beanie Man just totally tore the record down.
And you know, so that I'm excited about. And also, I have an independent rapper that I've been working with for the past six years. And I finally released his album, his name is Bianbo Lee. What else?
I co-founded a website called Geek Mode. And one of the aspects of the website is targeting people celebrities or just different industry people, or just regular people no matter what. And interviewing them about the things that they geek out about. Like for me, I'm a sneaker head.
I collect action figures. I collect comic books. I got geeked out over that stuff. Like my studio looks like a toy museum.
That's how the idea of the website started. You know, whatever it is, we have a website dedicated to people and their weird obsessions and collections and stuff like that. Would you describe yourself as a man of faith? Yes, 100%.
If I didn't have some aspect of faith, I don't think I can do what I do. This business is a faith and faith business. It sounds weird, but it is. Like when somebody wins an award, the first thing they do is they thank God.
When somebody gets to the next level, the first thing they do is they thank God. But somebody wants to go to the next level and make it the first thing they do is that, you know, God willing, and I pray to God that blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So technically it is a faith-based business and you've got to have faith in this business. Or you're not going to, you'll never succeed because if you don't have faith, the odds of you not making it are more than you making it.
So the only way people stay strong in this industry is to have faith. And for me, being in this game for 20 years, I've got to have more faith than anybody I know because nobody has guaranteed that. Nobody's guaranteed a successful current 20-year career in music. I can't name too many people.
I can't name stretching and hip-hop. You know, in hip-hop, you're based on an era. I'm on my third era. I'm maybe on my fourth or fifth era.
When history looks back at you, Kwame, how would you like to be remembered? Oh, no. It's funny. I knew how I didn't want to be remembered.
And I think that's part of the reason why I do what I do. I do want to be remembered as the quirky rapper from the 90s that had spots on his shirt. I totally appreciate that era. And without that ever, I could not do what I do.
But that does not define what I am. At the end of the day, the polka dots and that era may be the anchor. But when the body of work is shown, I want people to have the only good all that. You know what I'm saying?
Word. Do you think all the changes in the industry have been good or bad for the artists? Oh, good for artists because now there isn't the excuse of please listen to my demo. Any more.
You can put it out. Just put it out. Don't tell me about it. Don't send me no music.
Just put it out. Let it rock. You don't have the barrier anymore. I hate the MC's too big if I only can get a deal.
Tag, if you go only put me on. I don't want to put you on, put your cell phone. Nobody put me on that didn't see me putting my cell phone. You know?
How about the consumers? No, I don't think the music industry did anything. I think that the music industry has gone as mass market in the culture to the point where they turn the culture into pop culture. Imagine if there was only one place in the world to give McDonald's french fries.
Those french fries would taste so good. But now that you can get them anywhere, they may still be good, but it's not like it's the first thing you're thinking about anymore. You don't have to go out of your way for McDonald's at all. And then how would this be?
And then people blame it on the industry or they blame it on the internet. Why? Rec and sales aren't selling, but it's really affected. It's so much crap out there.
That's the only thing that are selling over people. What? Artists are so quick to put it back it out. I got to put out a mistake.
I got to put out an album. I got to put out a double album. Big sheep in themselves. And for now years later, nobody wants to buy an album because they don't get it for free all the time.
Or they get so much of it, it's not worth anything. And then once you over expose, you can devalue your product. And I think the industry has turned artists into over exposed products. Your favorite artist or album that your fans would be surprised to hear about?
Fight. Word. Let's jump into some tunes. Yo, I'm resuming the Q&A session with my man Kwame.
I hope you enjoy those tracks, but I got to get down to business. We're going to get into what I like to call erk. Rock him, erk Harris one. That's not sure yet.
Rock him. Big Daddy Kane, erkooji wrap. Cool jee wrap. Cool jee wrap or rock him?
Cool jee wrap. Cool mo-dee or cool jee wrap? Cool jee wrap. So you a big cool jee wrap, man.
Yeah, yeah. Krestina Aguilera, erk. Josh Stone. Yeah, Aguilera all good.
Isaac Hayes, erk. Barry White. I'm a gay. Public enemy, erk.
Exclan. Oh, we got him all good. Phil Collins, erk. Peter Gabriel.
Oh, come on, man. Phil Collins. Dossafex, erk. Fushinikens.
Dossafex, all good. Chub Rock, erk. Heavy. Adele, erk.
Amy Winehouse. Amy Winehouse. What about Prime Minister Pete Nice? Erk.
MC Search. Search. MC Light, erk. Lauren Hill.
What? Curtis Blow, erk. Sugar Hill Gang. Erk as well.
Buff, erk. Dougie Fresh. Oop. Buff from the Fat Boys.
Oh, Dougie, Dougie. Boy, where? Dana Dane. Erk.
Slick Rick. Say, now you come on, man. I give you my boy. Bush.
100% Rick. Dana know that. So long as I... Stevie Wonder, erk.
Marvin Gaye. Stevie. Elton John, erk. Billy Joe.
Billy Joe. 100 million percent. Ice Cube, erk. The DoC.
Jackie Chan. Jet Li. Jackie Chan because he's real with it. Gracias.
SNL. Erk, erk, erk. Mad TV. SNL.
I like your answers, dude. Oh. I mean, I don't agree with all of them, but I love them. Nonetheless.
Is there any unreleased material by you as an artist? Well, this way, I have two albums. I have a three album I call. That would be original recording on my first album, with Unmovies material that never made the album.
That I just acquired the Master's H2. And then I have a whole album I recorded in 96 that I think is better than everything that I've ever done. Mm-hmm. Sound like you need to get out on my tools?
Any plans to get back in the mic booth? I'm always recording. OK, OK. If you had to give someone the recipe for Kwame, what would the ingredients be?
Yeah, action figures. Science. I'm pure science. You have to know science.
Astronomy, which I guess is science. Music history, especially Black music history. It drives us to humor. And that's what you check me.
Yeah. Go ahead and plug some sites. See what I'm saying? The main website will be KwameMusic.com.
Twitter.com. Kwame did it. The other business is the Geek Mode, and that's G-E-E-K-M-O-D-E-K-M-O-D-E dot me. It was excellent building with you Kwame.
I appreciate you spending the time with us. I'm going to let you get back to business, and I'm going to get back to business. In conclusion, and in summary, I would like to direct you to the internet.