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10/24/2005 How have you been lately? Good man, just grinding. After I finished recording the album, I've been focusing on family. I'm trying to get back into the music now. It takes some adjusting because I've never stepped back from music like that. I haven't recorded a song in six months. Do you feel out of touch? I do, but it only takes a couple of songs to get back in it. We've been following you since "7 Years of Bad Luck," how have you grown since then? I got married, had my second daughter, and that just changed my life altogether. Plus, I lost my grandparents. They raised me, and losing them made me more focused on what I want to do. I surround myself with more professional people now. I learned from my past experiences with labels, I just got my head right. "Chain Letters" is about to drop, are you happy about how it came out? Yeah, 100%. There was nobody A&R'ing the record, nobody telling me what to write about. SoulSpazm gave me complete control. I wish it could have come out earlier, but you know, I'm glad it's finally seeing the light of day. On "That Ain't Me," you touch on a lot of different issues. Do you feel like people expect a certain sound from you coming from North Carolina? Yeah. Coming from the South, they expect you to be crunk or on some country shit, but that's just one side. I'm definitely trying to break down the stereotypes. I'm not knocking crunk music, because there's room for it, but I also wanted to show people that there's people down here with skills that can rhyme. People usually just think of beats with 808 drum kits. We're just trying to show people that there's more to the South than what they're seeing on TV. You've been out before Little Brother. Do you feel like the way the J.U.S.T.U.S. League is setting a precedent where if you're not crunk, people will expect you to sound like them? In a way, I think a lot of Hip Hop Heads would expect people to come out of North Carolina to sound like them, because they're making a lot of moves. But there's so many sounds coming out of North Carolina. I get confused a lot by people because they think I'm in the J.U.S.T.U.S. League because I work with Phonte, Comanche, Ill Mind, and Nicolay. I don't think I sound anything like them. It's a whole different vibe, and I could never knock them because they're doing their thing. You have a lot of different sounds and styles, how important is diversity to Supastition as an artist? It's real important. The reason people don't know where I'm from is because I started rhyming in 1986. That was when there was no West Coast, Southern music…I was just able to develop my style and be influenced by anyone. I just try to keep things diverse and touch a lot of different concepts that other people wouldn't touch on. I think a lot of people expected angry songs from me on this album because of my label situations, but I'm past all that. What was your inspiration for the Jake One-produced "Hate My Face?" A lot of producers out there, after "The Deadline" came out, they wanted to show love, but then they'd knock me. The exact same dudes that said I was one of the illest, after they sent me a beat CD and I didn't like it, I wasn't ill anymore, I was just "ok." I wrote that song from a lot of criticisms that I was hearing from people. I felt like a lot of people were mad because they wanted to be in a position that I was in. If you're not there, they don't care about you, but once you're there, they want you to take them with you. How is it working with Jake One? Jake's the coolest dude. Working with Jake is like working with one of your boys that you came up with. There's no egos involved. We used to have the same management, and he heard some tracks and wanted to be a part of the album. It's real cool to work with him. He's real laid-back, straight-up, and he handles his business. How did you end up linking up with Nicolay? I linked up with him after I heard the Little Brother joint, "Light it Up." I heard Nicolay was working with different people in North Carolina, so I assumed he was from North Carolina. One of his boys hit me with his e-mail and website, I checked it out and liked what I heard. I sent him an e-mail with my music, he replied saying he liked what he heard, and we were able to work together. He's a real cool cat. What's the significance of the title "Chain Letters?" I want you to pass it on like a chain letter. Word of mouth, that's what a chain letter is to me man. Also, the way people look at chain letters now, people are like "aw fuck that, I don't want to look at this." That goes on my feelings of getting cheated by a lot of labels. You put out "The Deadline EP" last year, what made that project come about? "The Deadline" wasn't in the picture. We actually missed our deadline to turn in "Chain Letters." I wanted to keep my name out since I had just been on the OkayPlayer album. I had a lot of songs that I was shopping to labels and mixtapes, so we put that together. How important was it to you to improve your production on "Chain Letters?" For me, it was always about stepping up, but I didn't have access back then. I didn't have loot, and you really have to know certain people. I always had a good ear for beats, but I couldn't get what I wanted. Now, I was able to get everything I wanted, from Ill Mind to Nicolay. I feel like they all brought their A-game. How much easier is it to get beats today? (laughs) A lot easier. Cats in North Carolina wanted to charge me two G's for beats when they didn't even have a name. Now, I can work with someone from another country and they don't even talk about dough. That's how "Chain Letters" went down. We weren't going back and forth on how people were going to get paid, that wasn't even an issue. Looking at your label experiences, what's been the biggest lesson you've learned? Get your money up front (laughs). Don't sign anything longer than a one album contract if they're not talking about any big money. Keep your own publishing. Choose your own beats if you're capable of choosing your own beats. Some people are not capable of doing that shit right. Be yourself. Don't sell yourself, unless you're getting paid for it. I'm not willing to sign a three or four album deal unless they're willing to take care of my family. Don't let a label bully you around. You have to realize that it's your music. What made you want to go with SoulSpazm for this release? I like the direction they're going with their music. They're not putting out anything that doesn't fit what they do at Beat Society. They're some straight-up guys. They weren't trying to sell me a dream. They let me do what I wanted to do with turning in a finished product. Not a lot of labels would let you do that. How did the OkayPlayer look help your career? It helped a lot. I never realized how important a co-sign was. I could have put out "The Williams" as a 12" or on "Chain Letters" and nobody would have noticed it. Because it was on the OkayPlayer album and ?uestlove picked it, people listened to it. Shout out to them. I never asked for anything else after that from them. A lot of people would kill for co-signs… With me, I never really wanted a co-sign from anybody. I don't feel like I could leach off of anybody's name like that. It would discredit everything I've done up to this point. I wanted to make it on my own and not be affiliated with other people. I don't want someone to be able to say "I put Supastition on." I just try to steer clear of that. I can't knock anybody that's done it, but that's just the way I like to go about it. I like to do everything on my own. I'm self-managed, I do my own contract negotiations, and I do all my own booking. How important is it to not only be an artist but also a businessman? It's real important. You have to know where your money's going. You don't have to worry about a middle man screwing up anything because you are talking directly to everyone. And no one can bullshit me today because I know the business. I've dealt with some inexperienced managers where I didn't feel they focused on my career as much as they should, and I felt that I could do better by myself. Why should we cop "Chain Letters?" If you want to hear some dope rhymes, dope production, just the shit that Hip Hop's about. I'm not selling no gimmicks. I don't wear a costume or have gotten shot, I'm just a nigga that raps. The album doesn't come with a t-shirt? (laughs) We'll have some t-shirts soon. Everybody's been shot, I'll just get a t-shirt with bullet holes in the front and sell that. It's funny, every new artist a magazine talks about is about all the bad things that happened to the person. It's like "damn, what does that have to do with the music?" They're just selling an image. I got family in jail. They don't want to come out and glorify that shit, that's the worst part of their life. How much does the music matter right now? About 10% of the industry is about music, for mainstream and underground, I'll say that for sure. Even the underground isn't about music no more. It's about radio promoters and publicists. If you look at the college radio charts, it's not about who has the hottest record out, it's about who's got the best person working the record. Commercial is the same thing, but on a bigger level. How frustrating has it been trying to get more people to listen to your music? With me, I used to concern myself with trying to get my name out there. Right now, I feel like word of mouth will filter out everything. I don't want any hype. If you over-hype something you may end up hurting yourself. What do you want to say to everyone out there? Cop the album "Chain Letters." Dope production and dope lyrics. I don't want to say it's taking Hip Hop back to the basics, this is just taking it up to another level. It's good, quality music with some dope concepts. And for everybody that's heard my previous releases, it's nothing like the older releases. You're not going to hear "7 Years of Bad Luck" or "The Deadline" here.

By Brian Kayser

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