It’s no secret that Harlem’s Dipset collective is made up of some of the most well-known rappers in the New York. While some members have managed to find mainstream success, other Diplomats are preparing for their close up by laying a rock hard foundation within underground circles.

Since making his rap debut on Diplomatic Immunity II, 40 Cal has provided a strong fix for battle rap addicts who crave punchlines, metaphors and similes to keep you in a constant mode of rewind. And with his latest mixtape, Broken Safety 2, the Harlem rhyme spitter is setting the stage for his first official album while continuing to his trademark swagger. The project feaures appearances from the entire Dipset family as well as R&B crooner Akon.

40 Cal recently sat down with HipHopSite.com to discuss his new mixtape, Dipset Unity, the art of freestyling and who he would love to go at in a rhyme contest.

HipHopSite.com: A lot of people have seen the video of you battling yourself. So what?s the difference between 40 Cal and Calvin Alan Byrd?

40 Cal: Honestly, it was 40 vs. Cal. I was thinking about that earlier. I was watching 106 [and Park on BET]. I seen TI vs. T.I.P. I’m just showing versatility. I’m showing creativity. That’s what I’m big on. My new album Broken Safety, I got a song on called “40 Cal” which is the intro. And basically I just say the word “Cal” or words like the prefix from the words “Cal” like 40 times. Or other shit like that…I’m a creative n***a. I feel the game is lacking that.

HHS: If you look at who’s out now as opposed to who hasn’t come out, there’s a big difference. Just watching the videos and listening to the music, you definitely have a lot of lyrical ability. What frame of mind do you get into to play with words on that level?

40 Cal: Right now, we at a level where I don’t write it anymore. So like now, it might take longer on a song, but I really believe I can write the whole verse in my head and try to memorize it and go straight to the booth. I just do it in my head. It’s almost like a game. You do one line, then you make the next line and stuff in the beginning. Right now I’m tellin’ too much.[laughs]

HHS: Is it pretty much a thing of just vibing off the beat or do you come in with the concept already in your head and ready to build on that, upon listening to the beat?

40 Cal: That’s the beauty of it because when you’re making the rhyme right there in your head, you are actually vibing off the beat as opposed to writing it down where you feel your thoughts are premeditated. Everything runs freely, you know what I’m sayin. So it’s real.

HHS: When was it when you decided to say “I’m not gonna write anymore. I’m gonna do it from the head.”

40 Cal: About a few years ago. I say 2002, 2003. First of all, I get so many beats that I didn’t have enough rhymes written down to fill the beats. So I said I will try something new. I went in the studio and I was like “Fuck it I’m just going to go off [the top of] my head and see how it go. And I like how it came out. It actually came out better than the stuff I had written down. I don’t know. It’s still better. It’s a better look because I ain’t write shit down.

HHS: We’ve all heard about the alleged beef inside the Diplomats camp between Jim Jones and Cam’ron. How unified is the crew in light of this, if there is such a beef?

40 Cal: You can’t believe everything you hear. The whole thing is based mainly on rumors and shit. What I will say is that we’re more than a label. We’re like a family. Sometimes family business do get leaked in the street. You gotta deal with it from there. Ain’t no changes been made. Everything is still the same.

HHS: So there wasn’t any feeling of walking on eggshells around certain cats or just being mindful of the atmosphere? It was just business as usual?

40 Cal: I mean, At one point the thought do cross your mind. I mean honestly…you gotta call and hear it from the person’s mouth to know what it is and feel more at ease. The whole game is designed to be based on rumors and all this. The rumors is the juicy shit that keep the Internet and all the magazines powerful. And a lot of it is true, but there’s so much, you gotta make your own assumption.

We do have real issues like anybody, you know what I’m sayin. How we deal with it and how we manage it shows you what type of people we are.

HHS: You have a couple of cats in Dipset whose projects are coming out sooner than you. I know you guys are family, but do you ever get frustrated at not being able to come out as quickly as some of the other Diplomats members?

40 Cal: Well truthfully, I was because me being a new artist, everybody wants to shine. Everybody wants to be the man at one time. I had to realize that it is what it is. I have the brand, but it’s whatever you do with it. Once you open the doors, it’s how you work it.

I just started doing my own thing. Instead of wishing for my own turn, I started doing my own thing. I just started making moves, like with these mixtape deals and all the side projects I got. I’m doing the Fight Klub and stuff like that. So that’s what’s making me more different and that’s what bangs a lot of doors open I can run through, you know what I mean.

I’m glad you asked that question. What makes Dipset so different from other people in a good aspect is we’re all family as a brand and we all got different labels. We all signed to different labels. And the good part about that is that if we was all on the same label, then it would be a problem. Like who’s dropping next. You gotta wait for his album and his shit came out. We ain’t drop him next.

Being that we on labels, we ain’t got that same problem that most groups have. They have the mixtapes dropping next year or six months later or nothing like that. We drop it when we feel like it. JR [Writer] and Cam at Asylum. They gonna drop whenever they feel like at it. I’m at Babygrande. We gonna do whatever we do. Juelz [Santana] at Def Jam. They not gonna stop whenever they release date. So we throwin them out like that. If we was all on the same label, it wouldn’t be like that. I’d probably be promoting an album that was gonna come out next January.

HHS: You got the new album coming out, Broken Safety 2.

40 Cal: It is actually a mixtape out.

HHS: It’s a mixtape, not an official album?

40 Cal: Yeah. I mean it’s a mixtape, but it’s handled like an album. It’s a mixtape deal. Everybody rates it as an album in the magazines and stuff…That?s just me going hard with whatever I do. But trust me, it sounds like an album and it’s guaranteed to be better than most of a lot of people’s albums that’s out right now.

Yes, it’s a mixtape. My official album will be out later this year.

HHS: What can fans expect from Broken Safety 2?

40 Cal: The first Broken Safety, which is mainly me, I ain’t really have features. I just wanted to show people what I can do. The second one is not without the features and I’m just more in to making songs you can party to. Songs for when you’re in your car. And all around for fans that appreciate the sport of rhyming. I got a lot of fans that just…they hit me on my Myspace or whatever, where they quote my lines and say “That’s brilliant. I like that a lot.” I write songs and stuff for people like that.

HHS: What’s up with the Scheme Team?

40 Cal: The Scheme Team, those are dudes I grew up with from my block before I was with Dipset. They just doing they thing. I figured I could set up a situation while I was doing my situation before we start another movement.

HHS: So are we gonna be hearing more from them this year or are you just getting yourselves prepped for a full scale assault?

40 Cal: You will definitely hear more from them. I always feature them on all my projects. I don’t want to be just one of them dudes, just shouting it out to be shouting it out. You’ll definitely see something. Shout out to my Scheme unit.

HHS: What’s your take on the scrutiny surrounding mixtapes. I know a couple of guys from Dipset said that it wouldn’t effect the crew as a whole, but how do you feel about it since you’ve built your rep and buzz off mixtapes?

40 Cal: Truthfully, I ain’t really disappointed with that whole mixtape thing. I know that we do shows to sell the mixtapes, stuff I put out, the Internet stuff. So I feel like they stepped on my paper a little, but truthfully there’s always a way around the grind. Everybody is gonna find another way.

It really hasn’t stagnated a little bit. They just putting bar codes on the mixtapes now and a little more. It’s like these mixtape deals. Before, we used to do our mixtapes out free all the time. Like all these mixtapes…look at all the mixtapes I don threw out for free and gave to the people. But now, this whole mixtape shit is like ‘Now I gotta get a deal for it.’ Which I’m not sad because now it becomes a classic. It can open up more doors.

Bootlegging ain’t gonna stop. People are still gonna do their thing. Shout out to DJ Drama, you know what I mean. That’s just a messed up situation.

HHS: Does that make your job a lot more complicated now, now that there’s a lot more eyes on the scene than it was?

40 Cal: Nah. Me personally, no it doesn’t. It doesn’t. I’m a rapper. I?mma put out songs regardless. I mean if I was a DJ, I see where it might affect me more. I know DJs that really stopped. They don’t really go out like that anymore….they only do it from like once a week to once a month, once every two months.

HHS: You did your thing with your appearance in Killa Season 2. Are there any more acting opportunities down the road?

40 Cal: Yeah, I’m doing pornos. I’m not in a porno, like jumping with the girls. It’s like… you ever seen one of them Lil’ Jon joints where he be on the cover and they sell em in the little stores for like $9.99 and it deals with one of them porno dudes? It’s called Dipsex. It’s like a Dipset porno. You can say I’m hosting it. [Laughs]. Just cop that. It’s just another little project.

HHS: You’ve garnered a solid reputation as a freestyle/battle emcee. In your opinion, can you be an MC (not a rapper) and not be able to freestyle?

40 Cal: I think you can because not every MC knows how to freestyle. I always compare rap to ball. I make a lot of comparisons.

Let’s just say rapping is just basic, just knowing how to play the game. Going into the NBA, you nice or whatever. Freestylin’ would be like a three-point offense. You can be in the NBA or you could be a rapper or MC and not know and not be the dude that know how to shoot the threes good, but you can still do your thing. Freestyle would be like the dunk offense or whatever.

That’s the comparison I make with it because it’s all a game to me. That’s what I think about the whole thing. You can come off the top off your head. That’s just another plus for you.

HHS: What made you decide to become a rapper?

40 Cal: Truthfully, you know, just growing up in my neighborhood. And the dude that I was looking up to was Big L from around our way at 140th and Lennox, 139th. I could see that he was a cool dude to me. I see him one time rapping to a whole crowd. I was amazed by it. I ain’t really have nobody like that to really look up to, that I really wanted to be. I mean, like an attainable dream. Everybody wanted to play basketball and be a doctor. It seemed like that wasn’t too attainable like rapping was. So I started that.

HHS: You’ve battled a bunch of worthy opponents who’ve given you a good run ( Cardi, Sam Scarfo, Nas, Jay-Z, Tru Life). Out of all the people you’ve battled, who was the toughest?

40 Cal: Cardi. Cardi was the toughest. He was the first person I had to battle. He had…I don’t know. He said some shit to me. When I go back to the tape and I really look, I think he was the toughest. The rhymes he was saying had the crowd also. So I had to go a little harder to win the crowd over.

HHS: If you could pick anyone to go toe to toe with that you haven’t battled, who would it be and why?

40 Cal: That’s a good one man. That?s a real good one. First of all, it’d have to be time. Second of all, anybody that say that they the best at this whole shit.

That’s who I want to go at, anybody that say they the best. There’s some dudes that say they’re the best and they do they moves to prove it. Those are the dudes I’m talkin’ about.

To me, it’s too many to name right now. I mean it’s some dudes that are worthy opponents. I just want somebody that’s a worthy opponent. I’ve had to eliminate people that I gave a shot to. I feel like they ain’t had much to lose.

I want to battle somebody that I can bang em out with. The dude Lil’ Wayne. The dude Kanye [West], I could say. I don?t really want to say, but yeah I could say….but I don’t see him [Kanye] running like that.

HHS: What can we expect from 40 Cal down the road?

40 Cal: Well, I don’t want to let too much of the cat out the bag, but believe more creativity. Believe more stuff like how you seen in the 40 vs. Cal and stuff like that.

Believe stuff like the Fight Klub battles and all that. Believe more creativity is about to emerge. Like I said from the beginning of the interview, the game is lacking that. And I feel like I?m one of them dudes to bring that to the game. Ain’t too many people you see that you can say like “Damn, you see what he just did. Like that’s crazy, You know he nice.”  Shit like my Trigger Happy mixtape. I feel like that was slept on a little bit. I had like classics on that shit. Songs like “Computer Love,” “For tha Love of Money.”

I really think that right now the fan base that likes my kind of music is not ones that really buy albums no more. They either download or just not really on it like that no more. I think that’s really the problem.

If I had a fan base like a Robin Thicke or Ciara, people [like] that, you’d see a whole different other artist. You’d have a different interview, you know what I’m sayin [laughs]. But being that I’m from Harlem USA, being one of them rappers that’s just a punchline makes me seem almost like an underdog. My whole theory is the game we’re going with. It’s gonna come back to that.

HHS: Do you see yourself collaborating with any non-Dipset artists down the road?

40 Cal: I did a joint with Akon. He’s some other type of dude right now. We did that a long time ago. I’m open to all different features and stuff. I’m one of them creative dudes. I’m here to show people the different dimensions to this shit. So everything I jump on, I conquer it all.