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1/9/2006 What's good? I'm good. I'm a little under the weather, but I'm straight. You've definitely gotten around, but there are still a lot of people that don't know you. How do you want to introduce yourself to the HipHopGame family? Here I am, Math, straight out of Brooklyn, Crown Heights. I'm going to bring it to you like Jay-Z and B.I.G. did, in the biggest way possible. Speaking of Biggie, you reference him a lot in your music. How important is he to you? Growing up, Biggie made the score music to my life, especially some of his songs on "Ready to Die," I would turn to that album again and again, because it felt like we were in the same place when he was making that music. You got cut in the face early in your life, how did that affect your outlook on life and music? On life, it brought me to the reality that anyone can be touched. It doesn't matter how many people in the hood respect you, anybody can be touched. Me being physically affected that way, it messed me up. I'm an egotistical dude, and I have to walk around with that on my face for the rest of my life. To tell you the truth, I look at it as a punishment from God for everything that I've done. Did that incident change your life? In a way, it did. I started looking at things differently. I realized that I couldn't be doing the same stupid shit that I was doing before. It steered me out of doing certain things that I might have done otherwise. Going to school at 15 with a scar on your face makes you feel different from everyone else. How do your other past experiences affect what music you make? I always say my music has a nostalgic vibe of things I've been through in life or a prophetic view of things I see in my future. I think back to things and I put it out in a song. If you can relate to it, you can relate to it, but if you can't, you can still enjoy the story. I know what I've been through, and I put that in the track, and I also look at those things to see where I want to be in the future. In "Dedication," you said, "Let me be me." Is that possible in today's game? I think it's possible. If you've got character, like if you're flamboyant, I think the fame will only increase that. If you're a phony and you're only putting on a show, I think people will see that. Real recognize real. The public might look at someone and think he's a gangster when he's not. I believe I can be me. It's not hard. It's about who you are. If you have the type of personality that people can latch onto, it's going to happen naturally. People will enjoy your music and they're going to like the type of person that you are. If your life is so boring that you have to come up with a gimmick to get people into you, that's a sad thing and some people feel they need to take that route. I don't have to do that. You put out your album "The Dream" in 2004, how did that do? It was cool. I gave it to a lot of industry heads, and they enjoyed it. I don't know. I'm always trying to improve. Even with "The Dream," every new song that I do, I'll take something out and put it on. I'll take the weakest song out and put a stronger song on. I'm still making it until I can really present it to the public in the way that I want to. With a deal, that's definitely going to help. Once the machine is behind it, I'll definitely do everything over. This album is the blueprint for everything that I need to do. How did you get Kanye down on the project? Kanye used to be managed by a guy named Free at So So Def. One of my mans at the time, Latir, he knew Kanye from working over there. He took my music to Kanye and he thought it was hot. After Kanye went to Rocafella, my man tried to get beats for me. Kanye tried to put me through a test, telling me to rhyme over his beats that were already out first. I rhymed over "Guess Who's Back." Then he gave me beats and he said, "I'm a fan." That was hot back then because Kanye had already done things with Jay-Z, Beanie Sigel, and Scarface. For him to say that about me, I was like, "Wow, that's what's up." I haven't spoken to him in awhile, but I know when I see him, it's going to be love. How was it working with Foxy Brown? That was a crazy thing. I just went out on a limb and stepped to her. This was before I had done some joints with Benzino. Foxy Brown was at Daddy's House recording, and I was over there to see the production coordinator Slim. They listened to my music but they just never had the heart to take it where it needed to go. I'll admit that there are a bunch of yes-men over at Bad Boy. I've seen that first-hand. Foxy heard me and was like, "This is fire." She was feeling the kid from the first bars that I spit. After a while, her business started to fall through and that wasn't a situation that I could be around anymore. What happened next? After that, one of Foxy's people introduced me to Benzino. This is when Benzino was starting his war with Eminem. He tried to get the kid to go after Em. He was like, "Math, you're a lyricist, you should go at him." I mention a lot of this in my song "What If?" At the time, I was real hungry. I respect Eminem, but I felt at the time, and now, that there are not a lot of people in the game that can really mess with me on that level. I thought about it and I even came up with a 50-bar verse. I got to the studio and he had his own songs, and he had people even dissing him in Spanish. I couldn't be a part of that. I felt that he was taking it overboard and that if I got down with it, I would just be another one of his cronies trying to get at dude for no good reason. Did that hurt you as far as getting coverage in The Source? I don't know, because I haven't seen 'Zino in a long time. I don't really know how he feels about me. We've been out of contact since then. I don't think there's any ill will that he's holding against me. At the end of the day, he felt that I was dope enough just to be in the studio with him. He invited me to the studio when he heard me. I don't think there's any ill will there. He seems like a level-headed dude. You've also made your mark up at Fight Klub, how did you get started rocking there? Everyone there had to audition. They heard about a movie I did, and I went through. I battled a dude, and in the audition, it seemed like they were going to make me keep battling this dude. He had battle rhymes and I had battle rhymes. They didn't decide who the winner was until I started freestyling about the dude. Just like Jay and Big, I don't write any of my lyrics down. I came up with some lines about the dude's jewelry and all that, and they said I was good money. How are you doing at Fight Klub? You'll have to come down to check that out. I'm not doing too bad, I'll put it that way. I was the main event at the last one. What's been your most memorable experience at Fight Klub so far? I think the most memorable moment is when I'm chewing a dude. This one dude I was rhyming against, I saw him beat three other people. The way he was rhyming, I was thinking, "Why doesn't someone say something about how he sounds?" Everyone just had random shit to say at him that you could say at anybody. He spit his verse, and I just started imitating how he rhymed. Everybody was rolling. Then I started spitting my own shit and everybody went crazy. They wouldn't even let me rhyme no more. They said I had done enough. It was crazy. It's a good feeling. How far do you want to take battling? It's fun for me. I do it because it's fun, not because I'm a real battle MC. If you hear the songs that I do, it's not about battling. It's about life and the things that I go through. The battling is fun. You'll hear someone say that they're better than a dude, but what proves that? What are you going to do, play your songs against each other? It doesn't go down like that. You need to immediately show people. It's fun for me to show people up. I'm a real competitive person. I'll be checking HipHopGame to see who has the hottest shit up there and then I'm going to make some shit to show them up. My presence must be known. In battling, I can do that in front of everybody. I love that. It feels good. You've also been doing some acting in independent films, how's that going? It's been going cool, but I slowed down on it because we all know that you can make it as a rapper and then start acting, but you can't make it as an actor and then start rapping. People won't take you seriously. In my biggest film, I played a rapper, so it wasn't detrimental to my music career. I fell back from acting because I don't want to get pegged as an actor before I'm known across the world as a rapper. What's your main focus in Hip Hop right now? I recently signed with High Profile MNGT, we're currently working on the LP at Eastside Sound Studios. We will be meeting with several labels during the first quater. Also we ar working on the website. I have beats from Coptic, Clark Kent, The Heatmakerz…I have more beats than I know what to do with sometimes. We're working on a package to take to labels. My goal is to just get in there and make it official. I'm going to keep banging out the mixtapes and I'm going to keep doing Fight Klub. If these labels won't open the door, I'll just go independent. What makes you attractive to labels? For one, right now, the South is doing their thing. As we know, things always come full circle. It started in New York, went to Cali, went back to New York, went South. If labels are business-minded, they need to get the next New York thing popping, and I am the next New York thing. I am the total package. There is nothing that I can't do. There is nothing out there that can mess with me. Not to sound cocky, but I'm confident in what I can do. I have the capabilities to be the best rapper on the East Coast. If people think I shouldn't say that, just put me to the test. What are you working on right now? I'm working on the album, and I'm working on doing my own video. I had a video out already that played in New York, California, and in the South called "For the Hood." That was a joint I did on my own. I'm working on a new video that's not going to be the norm. It's going to be a mini-story. You can get more from it than just booty music. I feel that I have the talent to do it, and I'm going to do it that way. I don't need booties to be bouncing around for you to pay attention to me. What do you want to say to everyone reading this? I want everyone to check for Math. It's not a joke. I will be the best, bottom-line. If you don't believe me, check for me, simple as that. If you think someone is better than me, holler at the Fight Klub. Understand that New York is going to come back. The starting lineup that we have right now is not doing that. We need some new blood. I am that new blood, and I am that new breed.

By Brian Kayser

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