HHS: Didn’t you retire as a rapper a while back? Are you going to be like Too Short and keep coming back to the game? J-Zone: Yeah, I retired in 2001 after Pimps Don’t Pay Taxes. I wanted to stick to production, but the beat selling game ain’t shit nowadays unless you got major label [cont.]

“If skills sold, truth be told/ I’d probably be, lyrically, Talib Kweli.” - Jay-Z  “Moment of Clarity” For the ignorant hip-hop listener, hearing Jigga show his praises for fellow Brooklyn native Talib Kweli may have been the first time Kweli’s near-flawless lyrical abilities were made crystal clear. A veteran behind the microphone, Kweli has gone from [cont.]

HipHopSite:  Let’s start by talking about the new album “Legacy Of Blood”, dropping September 21.  How does this album differ from “Visions Of Gandhi” and “Violent By Design”? Paz:   We did “Violent By Design” in our home studio, and basically recorded it and mixed it ourselves.  Then with “Visions Of Gandhi” we recorded it in [cont.]

With a tour promised for late September, the Foreign Exchange – comprised of producer Nicolay from the Netherlands and Phonte of Little Brother in North Carolina – are making big waves in creating the first of its kind hip hop project, where upon completing their debut LP titled Connected, they hadn’t even physically met each [cont.]

HHS:  Right off the bat, my first question is what was the inspiration behind “Trust” (B-side to the “Gotta Pay” 12″), as it seems that you had a significant message you were attempting to convey with that song. What inspired me to write “Trust” was my daughter Donae being born. As a father or even [cont.]

In sports they are often fond of saying that “familiarity breeds contempt” and in music this is also sometimes true. Just look to any group of siblings that have ever formed a group, the tensions are often very volatile and uncertain. But under the best conditions that same kind of familiarity can also breed an [cont.]

You’ve heard the expression “the more things change the more they stay the same”, but not in the rap game. Wale Oyejide a.k.a. Science Fiction is the contradiction to how Hip-Hop is being perceived. He infuses and uses sounds from his native Nigeria into his music singing about bringing about a transformation.  In a phone [cont.]

As radio stations and music video channels keep a stagnant rotation going, it’s easy for many casual hip-hop fans to grow either fearful or oblivious of anything truly original. Producer/engineer/DJ/graffiti writer and Sonic Sum member Fred Ones is hoping his debut album, Phobia of Doors: A Collection of Short Stories, will show people that underground [cont.]

“Life’s a bitch and then you die, that’s why we get high, cuz you never know when you’re gonna go” With those words delivered on the classic Nas debut LP Illmatic, AZ was immortalized within the history books of hip-hop music. As the only guest to appear on that seminal record, Brooklyn native AZ began [cont.]

In this life there are two things that just about anyone can do: you can either talk about it or be about it. It really is that simple. Yeah, it sounds as trite and cliched as a Nike add or a Bush Administration campaign slogan, but seldom seen are those quiet individuals who move through [cont.]

QUEENS, NY – I was invited to the home of Consequence to talk with him about his mixtape, “Take ‘Em To The Cleaners”.  I called Consequence around and he asked if we could meet up around 3:15pm so he could tidy up his place.  Come to find out, Consequence stayed around the way from where [cont.]

If you don’t know the Yardfather by now, that’s just a damn shame. While most of the world has been sleeping, Saigon has been putting out straight Hip-Hop classics that the streets have been eating up. Yeah, classics. Like Illmatic, Rakim and early WU-type classics. As in the type of records that will be revered, studied, debated [cont.]

Slick Rick’s forced hiatus caused many of us to forget and move on to the next. Some of us though, like myself, have never forgotten. When somehow, ‘The Ruler’ escaped to LA, just after his release from being confined in Florida by the INS, I had to meet up with one of the illest emcees, [cont.]

Slum Village has been through a lot, with label drama, group drama, and every other problem that a crew could go through.  But through it all they persist and grow with each release.  I sat down with Elzhi and he cleared some things up for the hip-hop world (T3 was sleeping in the background) Here’s [cont.]

HHS: First question, what are the meanings behind both album titles (Dead Ringer) and (Since We Last Spoke)? RJ: Dead Ringer the idea was a phrase that I heard people saying “oh he’s a dead ringer for so and so”, you know what I mean? I guess the irony of it, was that I did [cont.]

Something about the kid Bill just ain’t right. As one third of Brooklyn’s Non Phixion, the world got a long, hard look at the warped mind that is Ill Bill through his searing lines on NP’s classic debut, The Future is Now. No doubt, Bill is one of those people that just don’t give a [cont.]

Stardate: May 2nd 2004 Time: 14:00 Cage and Tame One, collectively known as the Leak Bros, are hard at work within the walls of Mighty Mi’s home. I’ve been talking back and forth with Mighty Mi attempting to schedule an interview in between the two’s intense recording sessions. Finally, after finagling a Sunday interview, Cage [cont.]

HHS:   I’m sitting here with the Perceptionists, how are you guys doing? Akrobatik:  Definitely doing good man, we just on the second leg of the 6 week tour the never-ending leg of the tour. HHS:   Go ahead and introduce yourselves to those who don’t know who you are Akrobatik:  We are The Perceptionists and my [cont.]

ETHX:  First question, you got all the material done for the album considering it’s dropping real soon? VAST: The album is done. It’s real good. It comes out April 20th on Chocolate Industries, it’s called “Look Mom, No Hands,” and it’s crazy, man. ETHX:  What is the reasoning for choosing “Look Mom, No Hands” as the [cont.]

HHS: With your man Blueprint popping up virtually everywhere, where has Illogic been between albums? Illogic: umm….chillen. (laughter) nah I’ve been out on the road here and there and really at home just preparing for this album to come out. Getting everything prepared for the release and getting things lined up and trying to get [cont.]