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5/10/2006 What's up, AC? I feel all right, man. The last couple of months have been hectic. The tape's been getting some good reviews. I'm happy because I have two previous tapes out, but it's not getting anywhere near the recognition this is. A lot of people are starting to recognize. I'm a 'Rican coming from Staten Island. A lot of people frown on the Island. They're scared of the Island. I already have a battle at hand before I even release anything. The mixtape, This is AC, seems to be doing well. Are you happy with how people are responding to it? I'm definitely happy. All the reviews have been positive. People seem to like my beat selection. We kept it real street and hip-hop. "The Truth About the Industry" is crazy. What was your inspiration for that? I'm a Cam fan and I'm a Jay-Z fan. As soon as Cam dropped the Jay diss, off the bat I had four lines in my head that Cam had taken. You can't diss somebody for something you're guilty of. That's hip-hop in general. I was like, "You can't do that, especially with Jay being as close to Biggie as he was." I was like, "Let me take it there." No one's rocked How to Rob in awhile, so I wrote the song in twenty minutes, recorded it, and sent out an email blast. I was talking about who was taking what from other people. I took a page out of 50's book. I did it on a Wednesday, and by Thursday it was on Power105. Spinbad and Khaled were playing it. It got the name out there a lot more than it was. Were you afraid people would say this is another "How to Rob" or Big Sty-soundalike? Actually, no. I think the reason why 50 created a bigger buzz than Big Sty was because 50's concept was crazy. He was really talking about those dudes' chains. Big Sty came out to diss everybody to get a name. I'm not knocking him for it. When I was writing the track, I knew the concept was crazy and it worked so well with what's going on in hip-hop right now. I took the idea and ran with it. People can look in my catalog and see that I have records. I have good songs. It's not something I did as a gimmick. I don't do things for gimmicks. I write what I feel. I wasn't worried about that based on how crazy the concept was. Did you get any negative feedback about the song? No. Spinbad hit me telling me he liked it because it wasn't a diss record. There's a fine line between a diss record and a real record. People aren't going to like it if you say their names, but if there's truth behind it, what can you do? It's not like I'm not guilty of it. We all sample. I should have made the hook, "It ain't that serious." Where do you draw the line between borrowing and biting? You draw the line when you're taking someone's whole style. If you take someone's lines and make it your own, that's something different. Hip-hop started with borrowing. Look at the break-beats. If you're just taking someone's style, that's biting. Snoop took Lil' Wayne's line "Drop it like it's hot" and made it hot in his own way. He didn't take Wayne's style to do it. "Let Me Hear Something" talks about how hard it is getting hometown support. Why is it so hard? That's a hard question to answer. I think it's because the South market is how it is and people are afraid of New York artists because a lot of people are trying to be like someone else. People are looking for Southern artists right now so it's a lot easier. How would you say your buzz is right now? I would say it's decent, but it's not where it needs to be. I definitely need to get the name out more. I'm in the studio 24/7 and I have Tapemasters, Inc. backing me. It's important to have someone backing you and willing to put your tape out so when people find you, they know where to relate your name to. I have a lot of big people backing me. I'm a young dude. I'm just trying to do what I do and stay on my grind. How did you and Tapemasters get down with each other? We started together. They started Tapemasters, Inc. when I started going at the mixtapes heavy. We met at school. I'm about to graduate with a four-year degree. They graduated two years ago. They started pushing me and my partner Slim. Slim's in VA right now. We got good responses. They're one of the biggest crews right now. They're known for quality tapes with dope covers and no talking. I'm on every one of their tapes except their "best of's." I'm even on their insturmetnal mixtapes because I produce. How did your track with J.Dilla come about? I have a lot of J.Dilla beat-CD's. I have a good relationship with Skyzoo. He's my peoples. He has a lot of J.Dilla beats. I rocked the beats and I believe before Jay Dee passed, Rest in Peace, he heard it and was feeling it. That track is real crazy. It has "hip-hop" written all over it. After he passed, were you considering not putting it out? Yeah, man. I was concerned about that. I didn't want people to think I was rocking his beat based on his passing. That was a big concern of mine because I never want to glorify somebody's death by putting out music on them. It's crazy because I had that joint for a good six months before he passed and we were just waiting to release the tape. After he passed, I knew I had to get it out because people need to know what he was like. His chop-game is crazy. His sample-game is crazy. He's one of the best to have ever done it. What kind of beats do you make for yourself? I make a lot of Staten-based stuff, but it's mainstream too. It's pretty street. I've been making beats for five years. My last three tapes have no production from myself on it because I'm waiting. By the time I'm done making a beat, I'm kind of sick of it and I just want to give it to somebody else. I want to shop it to someone else. I don't rap on my own beats because I just heard the beat for an hour. My best joints come when I write twenty or thirty minutes within getting the beat. What's your partner Slim been up to lately? We're cool. Everything's cool with us. He's been down in VA. I'm just trying to hold it down while he's in VA. He came out to my release party. There were 350 people there. We were always solo artists on some Red and Meth shit. There's definitely no grudges between us. When we work together, we basically cut the work in half. We don't have to write three verses for every song when we work together. What's your label situation right now? The best deals come when your buzz is real crazy. Right now, we're shopping to see if anything is on the horizon for the kid. It will happen when it happens. I'm not in a rush to get on a major right now. I'm making some money on this scene. There's really no rush, but if somebody wants to holler, I'm definitely willing to talk. What are you looking for? Something comfortable. I don't want to worry about anything other than the music. What's next for you? We're going to shop a little bit and see what people have to say about the project. We'll see who wants to jump on the AC bandwagon. The mixtape is hitting pretty hard. I'll probably drop the next tape in a couple months. I want to put out my first production project. I'm hosting one of the Inc. Files. This mixtape has been out for a few weeks so we're going to push that some more. What do you want to say to everyone? Good looking for everybody who sees me for what I am. I'm trying to hit you with the witty shit. It's not sugar-coated. It's not watered-down. I'm saying what I think. I love this culture and I'm just trying to do my thing in it. For everybody that's supporting me, keep supporting me, and I'm going to just keep dropping fire for everybody. For more information, visit http://thisisac.com

By Brian Kayser

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