Diggin‘ in the crates‘ golden child is crazy underrated. His "Word...Life" album should have gone gold, if not even more: the lyrics were tight, his flow was all that and the beats were top notch. But his record company went AWOL, about a week and some change after the release of that classically slept on album. So his star never rose over the underground surface, it sparkled though, and some heads recognized, but... Now back with a new album, entitled "Jewelz", he is musically less angry, a little more ‘pretty’, but still everything that made him this underground hot tip. Folks, it’s time to give this man his props.

Considering the lyrics of "Time’s Up" and "The Chosen One": are you that chosen one?

Yeah, ‘cause it’s like, people not only didn’t buy my stuff, but they also did not give me my props. It don’t matter to me now, but a few years ago, I cared about not being in a ‘hip hop quotables’ and shit like that. Now I say ‘fuck it, I go with what I say’. Damn, motherfuckers just don’t give me my props. But I’m not stressin’. I’m an entity within’ myself. I don’t care what people think. I’m more mature now.

Where did the "Black Crow" come from?

Just imagination. Poetry is the wreckage of my imagination, right? Just thought it up.

What would you say, what makes a good MC?

Somebody that thinks before he writes something down. You can tell if somebody that writes, reads. You can’t write without reading. Even some cats who’s real poetically inclined, they don’t even know what the advantage of reading is. I ain’t no ‘goody goody’ Rapper like that. If I had the power and influence in this game, that certain people have, the media in the streets, I’d be crazy recognized yo, straight up.

It’s surprising how underrated you are. I read an interview with Hurricane G and she said something like ‘like my man M.F.Grimm said: the more emotions I put into it, the harder I rock’. That’s on the track "Emotions" by M.F.Grimm, but that’s a sample from your "Time’s Up". She and people don’t even seem to know.

I don’t know baby, I couldn’t tell you. Peoples ain’t doing their homework. People know where I come from, so she maybe didn’t realize where the quote came from. I don’t know what it is. I don’t even think about it no more, like I said. I sold twenty thousand of my first album, in the first week. A lot of artists have never even done that. Recognize me as a strong force. I don’t know man, people are just wild. It’s funny. That’s why I started a new album in January. Just keep hittin’ em.

How did you hook up with the D.I.T.C.?

Well, I met Finesse and Buckwild on a Source tour in like ’91. It was a tour with Organized, Finesse, Biz Markie, Roxanne Shanté, [The Almighty] RSO, Coolie Live and these cats called Little Bastards. We just became friends after the tour and just was cool ever since. Buckwild started doing beats. I like what I heard from what he was doing. We kinda was like a group for a minute. It was just naturally, he brought me in, it wasn’t like ‘do you wanna be down’, I just was down.

You worked with Premo on the new album. Is it that you have to chase down these guys, or do they come up to you?

Naw, I don’t have to run after nobody. Premo is like family. It’s just that he’s real busy. Premo wanted to work on the first album, but he had the Biggie "Ready To Die" project, the Gang Starr project, the "Illmatic" [by Nas] project. He had a lot of shit. Every time I saw him at a party or something, I was like ‘wussup?’ and he was like ‘yo, I’m busy’. then we went to Japan together, with the Lords Of The Underground and we got real cool and he took me into his family. He’s just like a big brother. I got off the label Wild Pitch and got into a new situation. He wanted to work last on the album. He wanted to see what everybody else was doing and try to take the album to a next level. He and Mr. Walt of Da Beatminerz helped mix, produce, master the album. They really oversaw the project and how the album was supposed to sound. They just took it in, like it was their own. I was like ‘damn’, ‘cause I didn’t ask for none of that. They did it on their own, out of love.

What happened to hip hop that such talented people like you don’t get recognized as much as they would have in the early years? Back when people recognized talent.

You know, it’s like this: if you ain’t down with certain camps, you not going to that next level. I made a philosophy for myself: I changed up my old shit on this album, as far as I toned down the lyrics, the beats and shit like that. For the women, the men, white, black, yellow, green, whatever. That’s why I already started doing the next album: I’ma keep puttin’ out. I’ma force feed this to people, I’ma make them love me. I wanna go over the top with it. I want people to go, ‘damn, a real Emcee is selling a million or half a mill’. I want people to recognize Emcees like Rakim, Slick Rick, KRS. They paved the way for us and a lot of people abused and misused the thing they paved the way for. To them it’s all about the dough. I’m about the dough too, don’t get me wrong, but that ain’t my sole objective. A lot of cats live for a gold chain and a car. I got that. Got it without this rap shit. I’m driving a Lexus, so what? This hip hop shit ain’t payin’ me like that. If I’m in the mood, I pop some champagne. And people wonder how the fuck I’m doin’ that with selling no records. Shit, I’m a smart motherfucker and am not dependent on this record shit like that. I’m 27 years old. I’ve been through that. I got ways to do what I got to do. Not necessarily hustlin’ to live. Fuck everybody, I’m the man, straight up.