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6/22/2006 What's up? I feel like a million-dollar bill. What have you been up to lately? I've just been grinding. I've been grinding, grinding, grinding. I have a lot of new music coming out right now. It's about to go down all over again. I was fucking around and I made a MySpace song about the girls on MySpace and the song went crazy. It's been crazy. The buzz for that song is off the chain. I'm using the internet a lot right now. I think the internet puts you in direct correlation with the streets right now. The internet is the streets. I use the internet like a mixtape. Now that I made the MySpace song, it made everything better. How has the internet helped you? It's helped me greatly. That's my connection to the world. I can get information on there at any time of the day. I'm thinking about the international audience when I'm doing music now. I have a great buzz over there in the UK. I went over there with my Blackhand team and Dame Dash. DJ Honda has a group in Japan and I did a feature with his group and that's on their album. I shot a video in the UK. I'm really on some worldwide shit. The web is a beautiful thing. I wouldn't have a direct link to the whole wide world at the snap of my fingers without it. The internet is my best friend right now. How are things with you and Dame Dash? It's all good. We don't really do the music together right now. That's my nigga. That's my dude. I have a Blackhand Pro-Keds sneaker coming out with him. That's my dude. He's a good nigga. On the music side, it's just Blackhand right now. We're just grinding it out. Where will Autografh be coming out on? I'm in negotiations with two other labels right now. I don't know where it's going to go yet. We're making them wait. I have another club record on MySpace that popped off, "Make it Hot," and that's popping, especially in the DC area. I'm actually in DC now. That record is jumping all over the place. I'm going to make them wait. I'm going to tax them real heavy. Blackhand has been a strong independent label for the past ten years. We've had DVD's with Jay-Z, DMX, and 50 Cent. I sell a lot of product. I could make a living off of the projects we've put out and are going to put out. You've gone from Sony to Dame and now you're a free agent. Why have you bounced around so much? When Dame was at Rocafella, I was going to go with Dame. We have a movie deal with Dame called Inside Out which is based on Chazz Williams' life. He's the president of Blackhand. We were going to do music with him at the Roc, but when he left, we left. We weren't dealing with the Roc, we were dealing with Dame. I wasn't really bouncing around. Sony fucked up. You already know they don't know how to do rap. They don't know what they're doing in all actuality. This is not their forte. We actually went over to Def Jam and Dame brokered that deal for us, but I didn't want to be there if there were problems between Dame and Jay. I would rather have Blackhand stand alone and let the labels fight over us. We're a strong entity. They have to pay. Do you have any regrets over the Sony situation? No. I don't have any regrets because over there, I learned the business. Experience is the best teacher. I learned how corny the industry is. The only regret I have is I didn't start yoking up those niggas sooner and make them keep their word. This industry is real fake. It's all smoke and mirrors and bullshit and nothing means anything and no one's word means anything. I wish I had known that then. Nobody's word is official. The only regret I have is not making them keep their word. It's not just Sony, it's the entire music business. There's no loyalty, realism, or honor, at least among the industry niggas I've come across. If they do have any, they have it from the streets because they come from the same environment that I come from, like Bun-B and Scarface. We represent honesty and loyalty and we stick together. If I give you my word, it's done. Dame is the same way. When we first did the deal, we did it on a handshake. We shook hands and said we were going to do it. That was as good as it being written on paper because he's a real nigga. I never actually signed to the Roc because he left there before the paperwork got involved. That's the way we operate. That's what real niggas do. Your word is your bond. If I was going to pop off on industry niggas, I would have popped off on them a long time ago. I'm not going to be mingling with them drinking smoothies and all that other bullshit they do and doing all the other fake-ass shit they do with each other. If I was going to do that I would have done that a long time ago. I don't mingle with too many dudes. The few that I do know in the industry are good dudes. There are only a few real dudes in the industry. There's a lot of homosexual rumors in the industry. They're probably playing with each other's asses. A lot of niggas look like they get down like that. I'm in my own world. You don't see me in the club popping bottles with anybody. I'm in the studio or I'm on the road. I keep to myself. That's not a good or a bad thing, it just is what it is. I probably would have gotten further quicker if I had mingled with them. I'm in my own lane doing me so I don't even know what these niggas are doing, whether they're making records together, hugging each other, or doing cartwheels butt-ass naked. I don't care what they're doing. There are a lot of behind-the scenes who do some weird things. I just do me. I'm in the studio and on the road getting money. I love getting money. Shout out to the whole country. We've done Baltimore, DC, Tampa, Atlanta, and a few other places. We're moving around. The love is beautiful you get on the road and it makes me appreciate my fans and myself even more. I appreciate the work I do even more. If I was a fan, I would never ask for an autograph, but when fans come up to me, that feels good. They want to speak to me. In my eyes, I'm a regular nigga from the hood who raps better than most of these rappers you hear, but in their eyes, I'm something special and that means a lot to me. I want to shake their hands and talk to them because that's amazing to me. I'll stand out after a show and sign every autograph and shake every hand because it means so much to me. I get a lot of hits on there and I appreciate all my fans on there. I try to talk to everybody on there. It's a beautiful thing when people appreciate you. I owe it all to them. I can make music for myself and play it in my CD player, but they're the ones making me. That's why I'm on the road and making money. It's all for them. I make my music, but I make it for the people to enjoy. I have to make music I like first, but I just hope they can relate to me and they like what I say. The fact that they do means a lot to me. How's your long-awaited debut album Autografh coming? It's done. I really have two albums done. It's so crazy right now. I can't wait to put it out. It is really crazy. I have a lot of street tracks but a lot of other tracks. I have a track called "I Don't Wanna" where a kid is mislead to think hustling is cool. It's not. The money's cool, but everything else is messed up. I'm always trying to advocate some positive movement. I'm not a preachy role-model, but I think kids need to go to school and not follow these rappers. These rappers aren't living what they're saying. What I say, I've done it, and I'm not trying to be a role model, but I know I have to put my best foot forward and hope they can learn from my life. That's my story and I'm going to tell it, and if you can learn from my mistakes, that's better. I went to school. I was in the streets doing wrong, but I took my money and went to St. John's University. I dropped out to get more money, but I paid tuition out of my pocket and I wish I had finished. Look at Chazz. He's one of the most gangster niggas out. He's done fourteen or fifteen years and was on America's Most Wanted for robbing banks, and he has a business degree. I'm not going to tell you to not get your degree, but better yourself. Try to better yourself. Try to do something that's going to benefit you in the long run. I don't ever want to see any of my niggas go to jail. When I get on, I'm taking all my gorillas and wolves with me and they're going to get this rap money. I miss my niggas and I want them to come home. Do you feel pressure to blow up to help your people? Of course. It's not really pressure, it's more of a mandatory thing. Success has to be shared. That's what I have to do. I could never be successful and be greedy and keep it to myself. I'm looking to break bread. I have a big fan-base and a lot of people I owe my success to, and that's who I'm going to share with. Blackhand is a large family. There are a couple-thousand of us. I'm not a leader, I'm a voice. After I kick the door down, there are a lot of us coming. I'm like the spokes in a wheel. We're not divided, we're together. When I pop off, the industry has a problem. It's a wrap. Look out for Prinz and Shalone. Shalone has his own label. There's also Don P. from Atlanta. We have directors, screenwriters, and all kinds of things. This is Blackhand America. We're going 50/50 on the country with Bush. There is so much money to be made and we have so much to bring to the table. When will Autografh come out? It's looking like the end of the year if everything goes like it is. The little things slow everything down, like Sony or the Jay and Dame situation. You can't stop me from shining because the music is too good. How many different versions of Autografh exist? Not too many. I just keep recording. That's why I put out mixtapes. Autografh is done. I've modified it so it can be the ideal image of perfection. It's a classic album. What label do you see it coming out on? Right now, I'm between two. There's a third one trying to put their bid in. We're going to see what it looks like. It's not about money to me. It's about support and the honesty and integrity the label has. A lot of people at labels don't think I listen. I listen, I just don't listen to people who don't know anything. I'm trying to give niggas a blueprint that they need to follow. I'm trying to give you dudes directions. That's how I look at music. It's either new or reactionary, and if it's not new, it's not worth anything. HipHopGame's listeners never really take to your club tracks. I think that's the same for hip-hop fans in general. They want to hear spitting. Most hip-hop fans aren't into the radio. They want to hear the street shit. I like music in general and I'm not stuck in one form. I like commercial music, I like street music, and I like rock music. I like music. A lot of times you'll hear that as an influence in my music. I don't listen to one form of music. I have Coldplay, Led Zeppelin, Sean Paul, Snoop Dogg, Nas, Jay-Z, and Gwen Stefani in my CD player right now. I like music in general. Does it ever bother you when some of your fans don't respond the way you want them to for certain songs? To some degree. You can't please everybody. I don't particularly make music for a particular target audience. I don't target a particular listener. The beat dictates what I'm going to write. I don't say I'm making a certain song for the streets or for TRL. It doesn't matter what the demographic is. I'm making what I want to hear. I just hope everybody likes what I make. I make what I like. I know what type of site HipHopGame is and they want to hear my gritty shit, but I have to make different types of records. I'm going to give them what they want to hear, I just happen to like a lot of shit. Like, I have some records that are so rock-influenced that I couldn't even put them out now. I just like music. It is what it is. Does it still bother you when people spell your name with a "p"? Yes! Of course it does! It can be a person who just saw my name spelled the right way and they still do it. Even if they go to my MySpace page, they may type the url as "Grafh" and then still spell my name wrong! It's the craziest shit. One time I did a big show in Atlantic City and they made a flier. On the top my name was spelled right, and on the bottom my name was spelled wrong. How do you do that shit? It's G-R-A-F-H. Get it right. Have any English teachers ever gotten on you about missing the "is" in "My name Grafh"? (laughs) No. By the time I did that, I had already dropped out of school. I'm sure they would have. What else do you want to get into besides hip-hop? I have an interest in real estate. I just bought two homes, one in Long Island. I'm into real estate heavy because that's an intangible investment that always appreciates. I want to see and touch my investments. When I was a kid, I had to touch the fire to feel it was hot. I burned my finger and I learned not to touch it. I'm the type of person who jumps in the fire to feel it and I'm very meticulous and I do things myself. I like things I can touch. I'm also working on my first movie. I don't want to be a rapper in a movie. I want to be an actor in a movie. I'm working on my skills for that. Are Prinz and Shalone going to drop soon? Prinz has that song "Gun Talk" doing real well. Shalone is doing his own thing. When we come together, it's like Voltron. We're all building our own fan-bases. When we come together, it's going to be stupid. Right now, it's crazy. The team is very strong. We have a lot of talent. That's what it is. What's the next move for Grafh? Keep putting out more music, promoting myself, and doing the damn thing. I'm going to stay online and I'm building my own site, grafh.com. Go check that site out. I have all my old mixtapes up there for sale. I definitely appreciate their support. I answer all my fans all day. I want them to know that. I don't want anybody to have a bad Grafh experience. I try to allocate at least a day or two a day to holler back at everybody on there. I want them to know I'm a real dude. I want to get back at everybody. That's something I learned from being a 2Pac fan. 2Pac believed everybody he shook hands with would have a story about him, and I feel that. I'm still a fan and I'm still in the hood. What do you want to say to everyone? Keep supporting and let me know what you think about my music. I want to be in contact with everybody. Make friends with Grafh at http://myspace.com/grafhblackhand and http://grafh.com (and spell his name right!)

By Brian Kayser

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