What's up man? How're you?

A little tired, just got done working a 24 hour shift a day ago. Catching up on some sleep, ya know. Always ready to talk about some real shit though man…

Shit, I know the feeling. Explain to the people out there who you are. And where you reppin.

I go by the name Wordsmith. I currently live in Baltimore, Maryland. Actually I've been all over the place. My Father, a full colonel, was in the military, so I've been everywhere from VA to Georgia, Germany, Kansas, New Jersey, Texas just to name a few. What's crazy was that my brother and I was born in Germany. That means we have dual citizenship between Germany and the U.S. If either one of these countries go to war I could be drafted in either one.

That is crazy. How did you get that name Wordsmith?

I obviously drew it from the word "blacksmith". Like a blacksmith I craft my art. From my songs, lyrics, to my albums I craft my art. So, as a wordsmith I want to craft music that people feel.

Now I hear you have a couple of projects in the works and some projects already out there getting rave reviews. Could you elaborate on these projects?

Well first there is "Classic Material". I wanted to make this a straight hip hop album. It has a classical touch to it, take that as you want, but hence the name. From the scratching to the lyrics it has a straight up old school feel. I'm spitting about real shit, whether it's the state of hip-hop, being politically correct, or telling a story, the bases are covered with regards to me actually speaking about my own life. I will save that for my next project, One thing I am not talking about is guns. If I ever do talk about them they are for metaphorical use only, or to explain a point. When will the take the ghat, the clip, the piece to ya grill era end?

Then there is "Rockstrumentals" produced by my brother "Professa". This was a difficult album for me to write because I didn't have boundaries. I could do anything. This album is very open. Everything from heavy metal, acoustic soul, bluegrass, and hip-hop is covered on this album. Big ups to Professa man…

Who have you worked with in your career?

I've worked with Roc Marciano who is on 456 entertainment, Carson Daly's label. They just got a deal with Universal for distribution. I worked with my cousin Black Knight, Pryme and Tyler Durden who I was in a group with called Nepalm in 2002, just to name a few people.

The name that might stick out to most is Roc Marciano, who was formerly part of the Flipmode Squad with Busta Rhymes. Explain to us how it was working with him and how ya'll got together on the project.

Basically my cousin (Roc Marciano) hit me up out the blue and said he was coming to Baltimore in a week or two so I ended up picking him up at the bus station, ya know. I had already wrote the track "The Example: Lost chapters" to be either a track on the album or bonus cut. I told him the concept and how it was the second part of a track on "Classic Material" At this time I didn't have my recording unit, so I would go over to my man Pryme's place to record. This place really was the basement, couple chairs lying around empty beer bottles, liquor bottles, ply wood, to build a booth that probably still isn't made. . Roc went down there, laced the verse, dapped me up, got with another one of my cousin's and hit up a broad…ha,ha,ha, that's how you do it man…overall its was good to record with fam because it was the first time. We didn't waste time talking, I just laid down my verse and both hooks and he did his verse. Shhhh, he don't know, but I snuck some background vocals under his verse…ha,ha,ha, its hot though, he blood, its all love.

You seem to have this music thing in ya blood. Your brother producing, cousins all rap, seems like music was inevitable to you.

To be honest it was just like everything fell into place for me. I was always around music, rapping at the age of 13 in this group called the Wizard of Bass when I lived in Georgia. Those guys forced me to rap in there group because I was cool with them, that's crazy, but true. My father got stationed in VA next and I would freestyle here and there, so people at my school knew I could flow, I was just young and had no clue on how to get on. Eventually I started focusing more on football and got a scholarship to play football at Morgan State. I didn't rap anything for about a year and half until I transferred to Salisbury University to play ball. I Freestyled at a party one night and my man Damon (Tyler Durden) heard me and seen I had a little skill. We came back from Christmas break, he introduced me to a cat named Larry (Pryme) and the next thing I new I was doing what I never said I would do again, be in a group. It was for my benefit though because I got to learn more about the business. We signed a small deal with 24k productions while I was still a school. We went by the name Napalm and put out an album called "The Chronicles" in 2002. Without promotion and doing a video I learned no matter how good an album is, it won't sell. Truthfully, I didn't like that album though. My junior year I tore my knee up and still played the whole season, but I ended up falling in love with acting my senior year and performed in 8 plays. I ended up getting a degree in Theater and I strayed from the music again. I decided to try Graduate school for acting by auditioning at Penn State. I made it down to the final five, but ended failing for the first time at acting. Trying to find as reason why I didn't make it, my man Damon met a cat that used to produce for Sony, so the music thing was back on. I spit my solo joint for the new album first we and I ended up working on a solo album with this producer, which later became "Classic Material" Too bad he disappeared on me when he supposedly moved. I eventually moved on and it spurred my brother, Professa on to make beats because I had none. Whewww…so yeah its in my blood, I can't seem to elude the music, so it is God's will…that was the long and short of it…

Wow...(both laughing)... So as you keep making music how do you categorize yourself? What does Wordsmith bring to the table?

I categorize myself as an artist. I am here to make music that stands the test of time, not the current rump shaker in the club..........did I just say that? Anyway, I want to be a breath of fresh air, not just for hip-hop but for Rock heads also.

What do you feel right now is your greatest accomplishment in your career?

I would say getting my own publishing company because it was my first business move on my own. It may seem small to others, but hey its means power to me.

Ability, Compacity, Enablement......(Power by: Wordsmith)

Who would you like to work with? Rappers or producer's.

Ah man, there are so many...let's see. Gotta choose Redman he's been hot forever! He's been himself since he dropped "What the Album.". Nas because I feel that we are on the same level musically. Oh and gotta say Rakim...nuff said on that. Blackstarr not just Mos Def or Talib Qweli separate I would like to work with both. Smiff -– Wesson and Gangstarr.

As for producer's Alchemist, Kanye I think he would complement my style, this up and coming producer from Canada called Strada, he will blow..and a very slept on Havoc from Mobb Deep, got some fyah!!!!!

Who do you feel are your influences in this Rap shit?

I listened to a lot of Public Enemy, I listened to a lot of Leader's (leader's on the new school), Special ed, third Bass, Jeru tha Damaja, Das Efx, EPMD, LL, Kwame, Heavy D., Ice Cube, Twista but the list goes on and on. I'm a fan of the early 90's hip hop.

What's on the horizon for Wordsmith?

Well I have an album called "The Golden Era". The album is being produced by Strada, Demo, Sketchman, Professa, and 16 Barz. This is a project I consider my debut release. With this project I wanted to bring the 90's hip hop element to the 00'. I wanted to reintroduce hip hop to our day and era. This album is more personal than my other releases because I want all the elements of a classic album to be in place. Your getting more of wordsmith. It's sort of a rebirth of the Renaissance.

Another Project is Rockstrumentals the Concert Series. This will be more heavy metal. My goal is to make this an album that reflect the idea of live music, hence the name Concert series. I want it to be able to be played from track 1-15 or how many songs there are. I'm not trying to push rock onto the hip hop fans out there I'm trying to hit the rock fans with this. I want to be able to tour with this album.

I just finished an album called "The Masterpiece Collection" that takes the listener through three different chronicles of life or culture. It has a spiritual and theater feel to it. I wrote the album to be released overseas only. I just feel like overseas understand hip-hop more and appreciate the work that goes into making a hip-hop record. There is a lot of deep subjects on this album, ya know. Plus, I think it would be hot to drop a hip-hop album and Rock album in the US, while I drop a full length album overseas only…no body better steal that either…ha,ha…

What you wanna tell the Hip Hop fans out there?

Give my music a chance. If you do anything with my music, listen to it and don't just hear it. Please don't put my music in the same state rap is currently in. Put it in the genre of a piece of art. If your looking for a bunch of club bangers and commercial music, I don't want to disappoint you, but it ain't here. I want to hit you like the music hit you in the early nineties. People talked about things that everyone can feel. Rappers talked about anything, whether it was the peach fuzz on there chin or how parents don't understand, it made sense because a large majority can relate to it. Not everyone knows about having all the platinum and the cars. But people know about the hood and being poor. Rap right now has boundaries. You need a club banger to blow nowadays. Back in the day all you needed was a hot track and a topic everyone felt.

I definitely feel that man. Tell the people how they could come into get in contact with the mind that is WORDSMITH. You can holla at me on my e-mail wordsmith42@myway.com or my website www.wordsmithmusic.com I have joints on www.download.com/wordsmith and www.download.com/wordsmithrock For real you can holla at me on my cell 443-854-4628, its all good, holla…

Aight man it was good building with you be safe and continue to make that good music. No doubt…the new revolution of hip-hop and rock baby…