Why such a long gap between solo albums for you [seven years and counting], and when do you expect the new one, 11th Hour, to drop?
Things pretty much just stopped up. If it was up to me I’d have more stuff out. Studying music [theory] caused a little bit of delay, but most of the delay was from dealing with critical situations—chaos, poisonous people I had to get out of my life. Now that they’re out of my face I can concentrate a little bit more. Def Jux is releasing the album. I’ve known El-P for years, but this is the first time we’ve done something like this. And I don’t known an exact release date, but I’m thinking it’s pretty soon.
How about an update on the Deltron 3030 follow-up?
All the musical production, from Kid Koala and Dan [the Automator], is done. All I gotta do is write my raps to it. I already started writing a little bit—I got a plotline—but I’m taking my time ’cause I want it to be right, and I ain’t really got the mind-set right now to try to write nothin’ like that. When I wrote the first one, I basically was still a kid, kickin’ it every day watching sci-fi videos, lots of anime, reading a lot of comic books, playing a lot of video games. My life has completely changed. I don’t play video games at all. I don’t watch TV at all. All I do is work on music. So I just gotta get back in that mode. As soon as I get a free lane and I can sit down and concentrate, then I’ll do that. But right now it ain’t really about the fantasy world for me. It’s all about reality. I had experiences where I could’ve died, I could’ve killed somebody, I could’ve been locked up in jail, so after goin’ through a lot of drama like that, I’m not playin’, you know what I’m sayin’? Stuff is more serious to me.
Do you think Kanye West’s sales victory over 50 Cent signals a public shift toward more imaginative forms of hip-hop, a trend that could benefit someone like you?
I’ll say this: 50, what he comin’ with, you kinda already heard it before, and I think people are getting a little bit tired of that. Nothin’ against 50, I got 50 albums, 50 tight to me. But the whole gangsta-ism, the whole genre, people are just kinda gettin’ sick of all that. Kanye, he new, he fresh, he got a little style, he got a little flavor to himself, he cool to look it, he inventive with his stuff, he not hella abrasive. He just make good music, and he’s a great musician, obviously talented.
I would say there’s a little bit of 50 to me, [but] I would say there’s more of Kanye to me.
He come at it like a real artist who composes a song, and I’ve got the same kinda mind-state. He thinkin’ about people and what they wanna hear. He realizes that it can’t be the artist without the audience. He try to communicate with people. And I’m pretty much on that same page. I look at anybody who’s had success—I’m talkin’ about jazz, funk, soul, R&B—all the people that were successful had that knack of being able to reach you.
With Devin the Dude, Bukue One, Serendipity Project. September 27, 7 p.m., $20. Jillian’s, 759-0459.