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9/27/2006 What's up? Everything is good. Your album whutduzFMstand4? is finally done. It was supposed to come out on Avatar. What happened? We went through a lot of paperwork and negotiations. We finally came to an agreement. There were issues with samples. That's what underground rappers do. The sample clearance took so long and it just kept on getting pushed back. We finally fixed that and it got pushed back again. They wanted to push it back to January because they thought it would be suicide to drop an album in the fourth quarter. I wasn't really feeling that so I asked to be removed from that situation for now. Now I'm pushing it myself. That's how it's always been since day one. They helped a little bit, but everything done for this album was done by me and QN5. They were basically doing distribution for me. Why has whutduzFMstand4? taken so long to come out? I'm one of those people who doesn't just do things to do it. You only get one chance for your first album. I wanted to do it right. It's a personal experience. I wanted to make sure everything was perfect and was how I wanted it. I didn't want to have any tracks that didn't need to be there. I wanted every track to sound like it needed to be there. Are you happy with how it came out? I'm 100% satisfied. It seems like the public is 100% satisfied as well. I've never seen underground artists get the reviews I've gotten for their first album. You have a lot of producers from Domingo to Kno to Elite to Tonedeff. What were you looking for from your producers? All I wanted at the end of the day was beats that fit the project. I didn't need the names. At one point Elite didn't have a beat on the album and I just wanted music that fit what I was trying to say. I had all the concepts in my head and then I would listen to beats. If I heard a beat that fit the concept in my head, I would snatch it up and write to it. I was never like, Let me get a beat from Domingo because he's hot. That's just how everything came about. It's pretty much the luck of the draw with that type of thing. You've been pushing "Stomp" for a minute. Are you happy with how that song did? Yeah. That song was a big surprise. I just did if for a mixtape. A couple weeks after we put the mixtape out, I performed it at Scribble Jam in front of 5,000 people and they went ballistic when we did it. They went crazy. We had no idea. I just decided to put it out as a single. It was hot. Some people don't dig it for whatever reason, but for the most part it's gotten phenomenal responses. I'm happy with the way it came out. What was your inspiration for "I Can't Win"? It's really just frustration. It's not really all frustration, but sometimes you just sit down and think about all the stuff you have to go through and it comes out. I don't even know how I wrote that song. I couldn't even tell you the process. It feels like I just sat down and opened my eyes and I had a song. It's a gut feeling and that's all you can ask for in a song. I think about how what I go through in this music game and how frustrating it is. What's keeping you in the game? Have you ever dated a chick who drives you crazy? You can't explain why you love her, you just get this great feeling even though the two of you just drive each other crazy. That's like me and rap. I'm good to it and I don't get this kind of happiness from anything else in the world. This is what I was meant to do. There are things I was meant to do to make it worth my while. This isn't something I can give up. It's not a job I can get fired from. You just have to nurture the relationship to make it work. You can't let the frustration kill you. You have to work around it. What are your goals for whutduzFMstand4? I know I'm not going to get rich off of it. I just want to get it to the people. If the people don't know anything about me and think I'm only good for hot punchlines, they're going to learn about me here. I'm not looking for first-week sales or to be famous. I want people to know that when they want to hear good music, they're going to check for Pack FM. I want my reputation to spread and I want people to know exactly what I'm capable of and to look for me for the good music. Is whutduzFMstand4? overdue? It's definitely overdue. If it was supposed to come out earlier, it would have. Everything happens for a reason. If you look at the climate of hip-hop right now, it's perfect. A lot of people are fed up, especially in the underground. There are so many rappers who put out such trash records. You don't even know what they were thinking. The hype doesn't back it up and you're sick of listening to it after three weeks. You can listen to this record for over two years. There's a lot of things relevant in people's lives on here. The timing is perfect but it should have been done a long time ago. What's going on with the Plague today? That's the biggest crew in the world. We're a big crew. We're a big family. We kick it at each other's cribs. We all have our own goals as solo artists and we all want to get out first. We're all putting our heads together to put this album out. We meet up every so often to talk about the album. When you have twelve people to organize, it's hard. We don't want to just jump in the booth and start recording songs for no reason. It has to have a purpose. With this many people, it has to be done meticulously. Right now the roster is me, Pumpkinhead, Tonedeff, Session, Mr. Mecca, Substantial, Hydra, DP One, Poison Pen, Kameel-Yen and the Bad Seed. I probably left a couple people out. We're doing things and we have a couple shows coming up this Fall. Is there a new Extended F@mm album on the way? We have to all get our own agendas out of the way first and approach it with a clear head. We have all the ideas for the album mapped out and we have the ideas too. We have the ideas ready to go. We just need the time to do it. When we're on tour we all do EF@mm songs. We're still down, it's just not time for us to make the album yet. Is there any chance of Pack FM battling again? I would never battle anybody again unless they deserve to die. I don't have anything to prove anymore. I think the last time I battled was three to four years ago. The Scribble Jam battle this year was so bad. I was talking to C.Rayz Walz and we were saying we should just get in and run through those cats. But you also don't want them making a name off all your hard work. With the battles, it has nothing to do with how nice you are. Anybody can win on any given Sunday if they say something nice. If one person says the right thing it's a wrap for you. I don't have anything to prove. I'm working on making songs and showing people that I can make an album that they can't mess with. That's how I battle now. What would it take to get you back? I would battle somebody if they challenge me. If you want to challenge me on the spot, I'll go. I don't have anything to prove in the tournaments. To get into a tournament, it would take a whole lot of money and there would have to be high-caliber MC's with reputations equal to or greater than mine. I'm not just going to jump into any tournament. Anybody that wants to call me out will get served very quick, but don't try to do it at my show because that's my time and I will son you. How do you feel about the new generation of DVD battle rappers? They're cool. Those are fun to watch. Some of those dudes are mad funny, but it's an entirely different arena. It's the difference between watching WCW and ECW. I'm not saying one is better than the other. Some of them are funny but they also get redundant, but so do the underground battles. Sometimes these dudes are wiling and you can't believe they said something in front of their whole crew. At the same time they're kind of playing themselves because they're saying they'll do this and this to their crew and they never do. You're on the video camera getting sonned and that's not cool. Poison Pen's said he goes out partying with you a lot. What's that like? Oh, man. We bug out. Pen's a good dude. We go for the good-looking females, make fun of the rappers and just hang out. Sometimes I just go to his crib. People call his crib the No Production Zone. It has nothing to do with music. You either watch music videos or play Xbox. Nothing gets done there. Poison Pen's all about having a good time. If you're in New York City or at any event in hip-hop and you see Poison Pen, Pack FM isn't far behind and vice versa. What's the next move for you? I'm showing people that I can make an album that can't really be messed with. Next I want to show people I have the live show. I know I can do what I can do in the booth. Now I have to prove my live show can't be messed with. Once I feel I've accomplished that, I'll get back in the booth. I already have an idea for the next project that's incredible. Anything you hear from Pack FM is going to be music related. I'm not using my talents for nothing else. What do you want to say to everybody? Stop downloading my shit. Buy my album. http://packfm.com http://myspace.com/packfm

By Brian Kayser

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