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4/3/2006 How are you doing Deck? I'm a little sick right now. Other than that, I'm feeling lovely. "A Little Story" is a dope song. What was your inspiration for that? I was overseas and we have a lot of Wu Tang affiliates over there like Cilvaringz. He actually did that beat. A lot of people think it was produced by RZA, but Cilvaringz is a RZA student, so it's all good to me. I heard those beats when I was over there, and it sounded like some crazy, overseas Wu Tang. It sounds like some late '80's, early '90's music. I did some Beastie Boys-call out on it. It wasn't supposed to be what it is now. My DJ, DJ Storm, sent it out to a couple people. The next thing you know, you're calling me and the single is everywhere. It turned out to be a good look. That shows that people really want some new Inspectah Deck. Yeah, definitely. I did nine songs when I did "A Lil' Story." I had released a joint called "My Style." Another was "Get Your Weight Up" and another was "Make a Move." I released them sporadically on the internet to see how they would do. So far, "My Style" and "A Lil' Story" have gotten the best response. I got a mixtape dropping soon and "A Lil' Story" is going to be on there with like five or six new joints. When are you looking to drop that? I was supposed to drop it today, but I was on the road for the Wu Tang tour. I'm trying to get it out in the next couple of weeks. You're going to be seeing and hearing about it in a small way. We're not trying to spend a million dollars on this project. How was the Wu Tang tour? It's always good when I'm with my team. When we're together, it's like Godzilla coming to town. Buildings get knocked over. It was good to feel the love from the fans and know that there is still some die-hard fans out there that were 13 when they started listening to us and now they're 25. They're still holding us down. It gives you that energy when they're singing every song word-for-word with you. That makes you want to do it. How was the chemistry without ODB? It was definitely different. That's what's missing in Wu Tang. I think that plays a part in why it's hard to get an album together. Number one, nobody wants to do some bullshit. We don't want to put an album out and have them treat it like our past ones. I liked "Iron Flag," but I wasn't proud of "The W." I wasn't proud of that. "Iron Flag" was an up-to-date version of "36 Chambers" to me. Right now, they have the microscope out on us. They're looking at the "W" on "The W" cover wondering if it's authentic. I'm not here to satisfy anyone. If it's from me to you, I definitely want you to be happy with my shit, at least. Our shit is going to be different and dudes have to accept and respect that. Accept the fact that Wu Tang is not going to get everyday radio play. Was everyone on good terms throughout the tour? Yeah, man. Don't get it twisted, we were brothers before this music shit. It's all family shit. Sometimes you may not speak to your brother because he pissed you off, but we're family. The rap shit is different because brothers have mouths to feed and each brother has a different situation. Some have more kids than others and some have more property than others. But I know niggas are real with each other and the rap shit comes secondary to us. That's how we look at it. We never came in to be rap niggas. We told you from the jump that we were going to be the new industry. Even if the rap isn't going well, niggas still communicate, but we have different issues going on in our lives. Some niggas like to go out there and front, but we'll say, "I'm wounded right now. Let me get my blood circulating." That's like me dropping this mixtape. It's going to prepare you for the "Rebellion" album that I'm going to drop with RZA. It's just nursing the wounds and coming back. Not a lot of MC's ever let you know that they're down. I feel the same way sometimes. I feel that I'm the greatest like Ali sometimes, but I know in real life that I'm just one of many. When I say I'm nursing the wounds, my whole issue with this rap shit is that I was never a rapper. We came off the block, we hustled and put our money into the studio, and we made an album about what we were doing every day. I'd see RZA and Rae and we'd be spitting lines to each other while we were slanging them things. Putting the album together was a blessing. I've always had a problem with contracts and hidden clauses. A nigga offers you publishing and sends you a recording contract. There's silly shit and the lawyers are in on it too. I went through a shiesty lawyer with my Loud deal. Then Loud got dropped from BMG and Deck got lost in the shuffle with "Uncontrolled Substance." That album got pushed back four times. I signed the deal in '97 and the album dropped in '99. Meanwhile I got hit with marketing and promotions clauses each time the album got delayed. I can't take the blame for that shit because the album was done. I took three years off spending my money on lawyers to get out of contracts. I'm not letting anyone control me anymore. I'd rather not do music and do something else instead of not getting my publishing and all that. That's why I went through Koch for "The Movement." I did it through my company INS Productions because I didn't want to sign as an artist anymore. Now I have Urban Icon and I'm sitting on the sideline watching the game, getting some new moves, just figuring out the next move. Now, I have my label and my group House Gang. All that shit is secondary. I just have a renewed love for the game right now. It's fun to rhyme again. The game is fucked up, but I found the love within myself. I didn't have that for awhile, not that I lost it. I just never tapped into it. That's discouraging. That's like Jordan riding the bench. Jordan don't ride the bench. I know I can score in the clutch and I'm not scared to be in that situation. Sometimes you have to pass the rock or get traded to another team. That's how I felt with the Loud situation. Not to mention, I was signed to Loud as an individual and a group. That's a mistake I'll never make again. My shit goes back and a nigga has scars. I'm bionic with new parts put on me. Do you feel comfortable with where you are now? Hell yeah. Dudes haven't really gotten a full dosage of me yet. They know me for "bomb atomically" but they don't really know what I'm capable of yet. I'm just getting myself in the right position and setting myself up. Did you guys record any new tracks while you were on tour? Nah. Before the tour, I went to LA to do fifteen songs with RZA. Some of them have Rae, GZA, and Masta Killa on them. I did some joints for Rae's album and some songs with Ghost. I'm doing what I have to do. I'm going to do this one more time and I'm going to come like Hannibal. Straight up. How's "Rebellion" coming? It's going to be monster. It's going to be monster. It's going to be 50% RZA-produced, and the rest will be split up with different people. You might hear some Dirty South and West Coast tracks on there. I'm keeping it raw. We're keeping it hood and global. How will hardcore Wu fans react hearing you on West Coast or Dirty South tracks? They're going to love it because my blade is going to be out. My shit is going to be swinging too. They're going to be like, "This nigga is fucking up a Dirty South track." Then I want you to hear me on a slow jam, then an up-tempo song, then a basement Wu Tang track, then some knucklehead shit. You're going to hear me touching all bases because I'm not just one track. I've always told you about life, whether it was "Cold World" or "Troubled Man." It doesn't matter wherever you hear me at, I always tried to kick those rhymes to give you my vision. That's what the people are going to get from me, regardless. You're going to get real life from a first-person point of view. It's not my style to do all the shit that's going on now. I've done mad shit in my life and niggas talking about how I'm going to kill you and kidnap your kids. They're cubic zirconiums, man. Look at my shit, my shit will tell you, and it goes back ten years. It's nothing to be proud of, but my shit is about real life. "I don't know why I chose to smoke cess/I guess that's the time when I'm not depressed." I was smoking a blunt when you called me. I'm just telling you that shit because it's real. I'm not trying to blow my shit up. When are you looking to drop "Rebellion"? In the summer. I want to drop my shit in July. That means I have to finish my shit this April. In our last interview, you said that the industry wasn't ready for a Wu Tang album. Is the industry ready now for Wu or your solo album? Nope. Wu Tang is like Ali fighting George Foreman in Zaire. We have somehow become the underdogs in the game. People don't know that we started a lot of shit. We're the underdogs now. The kids are idolizing a bunch of other shit right now and Wu Tang is low on their list. We're going to come in and shock the world. We're going to knock a lot of people out. We'll come in and step on their reputation. If they played Wu Tang all day and we were the type to go under the table and do the payola thing, and do the 106 and Park thing…it's ridiculous. BET is like poison right now. Imagine if we had BET's support and MTV's support. What if we had VH1 and magazines' support, the way they all support that other bullshit. It'd be "Wu Tang boom bye aye." With all of the beefs going on in New York, why doesn't Wu Tang ever get called out? They're not going to call us out. That's the wrong thing to do. When you're the boxing champion of the world, you don't want to fight the motherfucker that can lay you out in the first round. You want to be Roy Jones. You want to dance around and do peacock shit because dudes will fall for that shit. People fall for the back-flips and moon-walking in the ring. They don't want to get in the ring with us. We'll head-butt them. Fuck it, take a point from me, I'll elbow the shit out of them. We're going to come with a banging-ass album and come back on the strength. We're going to do our thing without sucking all these nuts to get Hot97 or the Source to do us a favor. That's why we don't get along with the industry and the industry doesn't get along with us. If we came through sucking nuts, you'd probably hear us a little more. There would probably be another Wu Tang album out and we'd probably all have major deals. If we were those cats…That's not how we go. Peace. We're not going to be those dudes. We never was. We came in the game with masks and stocking caps and shit like that on the cover of our album. We never intended to be whatever you want to call it. Why do you think age matters so much in Hip Hop? I'm going to tell you like this. These young motherfuckers aren't getting anything real like we did. When we were young, growing up, the old school used to talk to us. They'd be like, "What are you doing out here? It's two in the morning." That's what needs to happen to these shorties right now. You can have your Young Jeezy, Lil' Flip, and Postaboy's…It's all on how you're reaching them. Dudes like us don't buy records. I support and I like to read credits to see who participated on what. A lot of us don't buy records though. Right now, it's parents buying records for their kids, and women buy records. That's why you have all these R&B songs. They'll say "I'll bust you in the head with the chrome" on a Mariah Carey remix. He's smuggled the coke across the border! I'm like, "Wow. I'm trying to give you that same shit on a beat that matches. I'll leave the R&B for someone else." I want the beat to resemble what I'm saying. A lot of dudes, you readers reading this shit, listen to what motherfuckers are saying nowadays. You can not allow dudes to get by and slide past anymore when motherfuckers are telling you to "shake that laffy taffy." That's real shit. I'm not worried about anyone screaming my name out because I'll bury niggas. Shit will be over. That will be the luck of the draw because I'll give motherfuckers war. If you're coming to me, you better have scars. Don't step into the ring with wolves. You're food. I'm waiting for it. If a nigga wants to call my name out, I'm going to go in on him. I don't even fuck with dudes like that. I got other shit to talk about than the next man. What's the best way to reach the kids in 2006? My solution is that you have to bounce with them. They want to be on the dance floor and you can't preach on the dance floor. You can't preach to your child while he's playing the Playstation. You have to grab a controller and kick it to him in his language. He'll have a fit if you turn it off because that's what he loves. You have to tell him what it is and tell him why you love him. You might hear me on some club shit. I might make some shit for the club, but you won't hear me singing or any other stupid shit. I'll be telling niggas how to do shit. I've been there. There might be someone in the bathroom waiting for you and they're wanting your chain. So you go in the bathroom because you're drunk and it's a wrap. That's what I'm telling them. If you're gangster, walk with your chain out. That's how I talk to my dogs. Motherfuckers are calling shots, priests are raping boys, there's terrorism, and the president is riding horses. All types of shit is going on and that's why I rap about what I rap about. That's why I might take it to the streets and talk about blades on the Escalade. I have to talk about that shit too. Last time we talked, New York Hip Hop was in a bad state. Has it gotten better? It's gotten worse. Let me explain something to you. New York rappers don't support New York rappers. Rappers don't support radio stations, radio stations don't support video stations…We don't love ourselves. That's how I see it. I'll go to ATL and those niggas are partying. They don't even let you smoke weed in the clubs like that. There's police in there partying with you. They're there to have a good time. I went to a party in ATL and it was good. When I get in a club in New York, as soon as I step to the bar, there's gunshots. In the deep South, motherfuckers will be in the club with their shirts off, partying. They don't even have their guns on them. They'll be out in the car. I love New York. Born and raised in the Bronx, Kingsbridge. I've stayed in Far Rockaway, Queens. I've been all over. I've lived in all five boroughs. I'm New York all the way. For the most part, I'll do a show in New York and maybe 300 people will show up. But I'll go out of town, and there's 5,000 motherfuckers out there. I'm not scared to open up for niggas. I'm down to steal a show however I can get it. When you see me, you know it's "oh shit, he's ready to air shit out." There's no negotiations or peace treaties. If I'm in the building, then you know my goal. If you think someone else is the illest, I'll drop an accapella in front of him and make it hard for him and his fifty-piece dance ensemble. I'm up there in a Champion sweatsuit fucking y'all up. It don't matter. I feel happy with myself and niggas are going to hear that when they hear my new shit. Where do you see Wu Tang going in the future? We're still going to be the most prolific, legendary motherfuckers in the game. The album is not going to come right now until signs in the game start changing. It's like basketball back in the day with their short-shorts and their thighs showing, now they wear pants down to their calves. That's a sign of the game changing. Now everyone is trying to take it back to what Biggie Smalls was doing. We came in with the fatigues and all that, and then Biggie and 'Pac came dressed up in suits, and that switched the game. Then when everyone went there, you had to switch it up to Versace and switching labels. Then Fabolous had the throwbacks with the matching hat and Shyne had you buying your hat a size bigger. Those are all signs of the game changing. You're going to notice it. You're either going to get right or get left. The next ill slang word I say will be next. We made up "cream" and "polying." We're going to give them so much new shit that they're not even going to know what we're talking about, and it will still sound better. What do you think of Nas going to Def Jam? I think Nas is a smart man from my dealings with the brother when he came through and showed love on our album. He's a smart man, and I know that whatever move he made is going to be best for him. I can't even judge that. As far as Hip Hop is concerned, I think it's some real champion, big man shit for Nas and Jay to collaborate. They went to war and somebody had to lose, and then to get up and shake a man's hands and say, "That was a good fight. I respect you now." Maybe that's what that is. There is probably so much respect between the two that they were like, "Let's link our business up and keep it moving." That's a lot of shit popping because they're two big names. I can't knock that. That's like Mack 10 going to Cash Money and Snoop going to No Limit. Those were chess moves. What's up with House Gang right now? Carlton Fisk is still locked up, but he did a lot of stuff before he went in. We're getting that project ready. We're trying to drop all of that through Wu Music Group, that's Wu's new label. A lot of things are happening off the radar with Wu. We're doing a lot of things ourselves instead of acting like we need motherfuckers to help us and then we become their slaves. It's like the US helping out foreign countries and then they set up a post in the neighborhood. We're not looking for allies, we're looking for comrades. What's your main focus on a day-to-day basis right now? My daughter. I'm just having a ball watching her grow. That's what I live for nowadays. I'm not chasing anything anymore. I'm not worried about being the illest MC or the richest. I'm not out there trying to kill nobody for a dollar, but I will defend myself for mine, but I'm not a savage in pursuit of happiness. I'm loving where I'm at right now. I'm here with my girl and everything is peace. I don't have any babymama drama and everything is peace. I'm just in the studio on some 2Pac shit. I just did twenty-eight songs. I'm just trying to keep the pace up and throw them out there like Chinese stars. I'm throwing them out on the internet because that seems to be the way to go for me. Commercial radio won't play me but the internet seems to be having a ball with your boy. What do you want to say to your fans? Understand Hip Hop again and understand what it is. Go back and listen to old shit real quick. You don't have to give up what you like these days. If you're "laffy taffying" it up, don't stop, but go back to Black Moon and Heltah Skeltah, the whole Duck Down Movement, Kool G. Rap, Big Daddy Kane…Take a trip through some shit. Then listen to what you're listening to now and ask yourself if that shit is Hip Hop. You have to understand that Hip Hop came about in a time when there was rock and disco. Country wasn't even that big at that moment. Now in the mix of Hip Hop, some new shit is being created and we haven't given it a name away from Hip Hop. It's not Hip Hop. It's something else. It's like how you had "trip hop" and we used to call it "house music" or "trance music." We need a different name for that shit out there because it's not Hip Hop. You have reggae, salsa, and meringue, and all that is different. The shit I grew up on made me want to rhyme. If I grew up in this era and I heard half of these dudes, it wouldn't inspire me to rhyme. It would inspire me to feel like I'm better than them, but I wouldn't want to live, breathe, and shit Hip Hop like the first time I saw "The Message" video. Dudes aren't influential these days. There hasn't been too many since us. It's crazy. I'll tell niggas to give themselves a Hip Hop test. Go back and listen to some classic shit, and then come back and listen to the shit out now. It's not Hip Hop. We may have to really start generalizing that shit as "rap." There are many different types of Hip Hop. That's just my personal feelings. Don't worry about me. I'm not the motherfucking rap hater. Do what you do. I'm just going to come through and make it hard. I'm going to distinguish a real MC from those frauds. Look out for the new mixtape. Right now, it's untitled. Look out for Urban Icon and Movement Marketing with Mike Moves from Landspeed. The new album "Rebellion" is coming later on in the year, hopefully in the summertime. You know it's going to have mad Wu Tang family members. I'm trying to make this shit big and I'm not collaborating with everybody. I'm making original shit. You may like it and you may not, but you have to respect it because I'm being me. Everything is original. It's not any shit you've heard before. Hate it or love it.

Read our previous interview with Inspectah Deck

By Brian Kayser

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