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8/30/2006 What's up? I'm feeling blessed. Everything's going pretty good for me so I can't complain. Put us up on Fred Knuxx. I go by "The Big Deal from the Small Wonder." I'm doing my thing right now in Delaware. I'm working on putting my name on the map and I'm trying to take every other spot and venue. In Delaware they call me "The Big Deal." What's the Delaware scene like? It's getting a lot better now. It's the crab in the barrel syndrome. Everybody's trying to be the first artist to blow up. Instead of everybody working together, everybody's trying to do their own thing. There's no unity or support. There are a lot of artists in Delaware who have things going for them but they never reach back. I put together this event called The Movement which was a showcase for Delaware artists. Freeway had a concert that night in Delaware and so did Doug E. Fresh and we still sold out. It was a great event and we put a lot of great artists in the spotlight. We were in the newspaper for it and everything. Do you believe an artist can be successful coming from Delaware? Yeah. There were a couple artists who had their chances. I don't know how they blew it. All I know that is with me getting opportunities, I'm not going to mess it up. My manager is out in California. It's only a matter of time for Delaware to blow up. Freeway, Cassidy, Peedi Crack and DJ Jazzy Jeff all live out in Delaware. It's only going to be a matter of time before premier artists in Delaware blow up. You recently dropped The Repo Man mixtape. How's that doing? It's doing good. I really took my time with that project. The DJ did his thing on it with the blending and scratching of it. I call it a "spit tape." I believe MC's put out spit tapes. I put it out with the mind-frame that I'm going to treat it as an album. I didn't want to just throw songs and freestyles together. Why the title The Repo Man? I'm taking the game back. I'm looking at the state of hip-hop right now. A lot of cats aren't happy. You have certain areas that are taking over and I came up with the mind-frame that we need to take the game back from all the trash rappers. If I have to be the first rapper to do it, I'm going to do it. I'm taking a stand for real hip-hop. You rocked a lot of classics on here. Is it more intimidating touching those beats than the new ones? No. I think it's better. Now, anybody can come and take the song of the moment and spit on it. I have to stand out. If everybody goes right, I'm going to go left. When I did "Live at the Temple," I didn't go to the studio. It was my man in his kitchen and he was just throwing on Wu-Tang beats. "Dear Iraq" is a deep track. I'm a dude who always watches TV and looks deeper into situations. I'm not fully against war, but if we're going to have a war, let's have it for the right reasons. I have my views and I'm going to speak on them. That's the power we have as artists and a lot of artists don't take that opportunity. They dumb themselves down and don't make music from the heart. I go against the grain. I have family members in the army. I took this opportunity to stand up and speak for everybody. What are your goals for The Repo Man? I want to sell more copies. I sell out at every show I'm at. At the end of the day, I just want it to be heard. I want people to just listen to something that's real. I want this to be a breath of fresh air in hip-hop. Everybody says they're hustling and selling their CD's, but as an unsigned artist, you want to be heard. You're trying to come up in a region not known for hip-hop. What's been your biggest challenge? Just telling people where you're from. I've rocked New York and Ohio, and you tell people "Delaware" and they say, "Dela-what?" People think Delaware is a place to drive through but never stop. I was talking with E-40 the other day and he said, I thought Delaware was a bunch of squares but y'all got it popping out here. It's the second smallest state but don't get it twisted. Philly's right next door, so a lot of Delaware artists try to be Philly artists, so we lose respect. It's hard for us to get on but we have to stay united and stay strong. The biggest problem here is a lack of identity. We're a state that's divided between the dudes rapping like New York rappers and the dudes rapping like Southern rappers. We have to stick to one sound, that way we can put this on the map. How important has the internet been to your grind? 90% of my success has been online. I started out trying to my thing on the local scene and that wasn't working out. The internet has allowed me to perform in different places. DJ Kurupt had a contest on his website looking for twenty-three artists and I won, so I got to perform in New York. People in the Netherlands told me they loved "Dear Iraq" and radio stations overseas are playing that. My main producers are from Germany. It's opened up a lot of doors. I can't express how good the internet is right now. Look at MySpace. It's to the point where cats don't even have websites anymore, they just have a MySpace. What are your goals as an unsigned artist? I'm just putting out the best music I can put out right now. I feel confident that I'm going to get signed eventually. I have too many things working right now. I'm going to keep on putting out that good music, keep on building my core fan-base and I'm about to work on this new mixtape Delafornia. My manager is from LA and he's connecting with a lot of LA artists, so I'm going to bridge the gap between LA and Delaware. Do you have an album done? To be honest, I have over 100 songs done. If I wanted to put out an album, I could put out an album right now. I have enough for two albums but I don't want to put it out prematurely. I'd rather do three or four mixtapes. I'm putting out the best music I can put out and I'm working on some compilation albums, but I'm not in a rush to put out an album yet because I want to make sure my buzz is there. What advice do you have for other MC's in small markets trying to get out? Think outside the box. You have to think outside the box. I think outside the box in everything I do. A lot of things I do that separate me from artists in my own state is because of how I think. I'm thinking about the world. I make songs from a world point of view. I'm not closed-minded. Just practice your craft and just keep at it. Be the first in your state to do something. Don't be the first to complain about how your state is this or how your state is that. I put together that show and I could have said, Nobody's going to come. If you do it with the right artists, it's going to be a success. What do you want to say to everybody? I appreciate everybody who went out and supported the project The Repo Man: Taking the Game Back. I just want to say thank you for recognizing and supporting real music. I want to give a shout out to all my fans. http://fredknuxx.com http://myspace.com/fredknuxx

By Brian Kayser

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