The new album is out!¦
“Yeah, I pressed it up myself, fuck that. I made a 1000 CD’s and 1000 DVD’s. The DVD has exclusive stuff like videos of tracks you didn’t hear yet, live shows and some goodies.”
What kind of album is it?
“It’s a street album, I pressed it up myself and sell it myself and via my website www.shabazzthedisciple.biz”
And musically, how is the album?
“It’s that crazy Bazz, street, spiritual other shit that nobody has, but also there’s that bangin’ hiphop. I like to leave the earth when I rhyme but that’s my spiritual chamber. I also have a street chamber. Combine both of them and that’s Shabazz. I teach you spirituality through street. Through a street form music.”
Who’s on production?
“MOD The Black Marvel, Get Large from Paris, Yogi formerly from Bad Boy, a lotta new underground hungry people who just got the right sounds.”
Any lyrical guests?
“Minimal. I only got RH Bless, my cousin and J Dot R my cousin and that’s about it.”
Is it a real album or a mixtape?
“I don’t deal with mixtapes. Mixtapes lower the worth of the artist. Now, today I got a problem with all the DJ’s that be like ‘Yo spit a verse or give me a song for my mixtape’. It used to be ‘Spit a verse or do a song for my compilation’ which means they pay you for your work but they switched it to ‘For my mixtape’ which is playing with words so they don’t have to pay you. I got a problem with that. It’s my job and I gotta live offa this shit. Anybody can make a mixtape now, it’s just too crowded with mixtapes! NEXT!”
How’d you get in touch with Godz Wrath?
“I came to Holland the first time with Gravediggaz on tour in like 97. We were at this station and I met this dude, big, beasty, walking like King Kong at us. I was like ‘You look like Chubb Rock’. And he was like ‘Gravediggaz? I want y’all to meet my man cause he loves your music’ and he introduced us to MOD and it’s a wrap after that. This nigga got the fuckin sickest beats on the planet right now. Ain’t no fuckin with them Godz Wrath, I don’t give a fuck who you are; you will have problems, trust me. We linked up now so it’s like unbelievable chemistry. Crazy chemistry so look out for that shit. Bring that hiphop shit back, tired of this bullshit. You got a lotta niggas that love hiphop ready to quit, ready to give up. You know, a lotta people lost inspiration don’t even wanna fuck with hiphop no more because the industry took over, stripped the fans of the power to the point where like when you buy a CD it’s like casting a vote. You put these artists in office. The more records he sold, that’s the top rapper which is like the president. If you don’t like the state of hiphop today: stop voting for them. Shabazz for president!!”
What’s up with Gravediggaz now?
“Well, Poetic rest in peace he passed away, Fruitkwan I think he’s down south, RZA is in LA doing movies, Prince Paul I saw him in Brooklyn, he came to one of my shows. He told me that RZA and him was planning to do another Gravediggaz album. I don’t know if it’s gonna happen but it was in the talks and I’m ready. It’s nothing official yet, just talks. Prince Paul and RZA were like they wanna do a reunite with me, Killah Priest, RZA and Prince Paul and Fruitkwan as the original members and we’ll carry the torch and keep the Gravediggaz going but it ain’t happened yet, it was just talks so don’t quote me on that.”
Your cousin is Freestyle. You have very different styles. Are you planning to do something with him?
“Me and Freestyle got an album but he’s one side of the globe and I’m on the other side of the globe and we’re just planting our seeds, building up our repertoire, that’s all. We got a lotta songs already, hiphop and reggae shit”
Who’s your favorite original Wu-Tang member?
“Wow that’s hard. It goes in different levels though. Down to earth regular fun guy to be around is Meth. But then, when I like to be entertained and damn near piss on myself from fucking laughing: Ol Dirty, god bless him. But of course it’s RZA cause who gave me my break in the music business so I always put him above all of them.”
Before the Book Of Shabazz you released a lotta singles. How come it took so long you released the album?
“Cause I don’t like the industry, niggas is full of shit. They’re fucking crooks, they’re fucking snakes, they’re fucking sharks, they cut ya throat leave you in the curb bleeding to death. So I don’t put no music in nobody’s hands, I’ll press it up my fucking self and get it out there. It was a discography of all the singles I had out during my career, just on CD for the first time and it wasn’t really my album. It was like ‘a mixtape’ without being a mixtape”
How do you feel about the Book Of Shabazz being slept on by many people?
“Everybody talks to me they love it. And I’m like ’it’s not my real album, y’all love that? I’ll blow your head off with the new shit!’ All of those songs were like 96 and before, maybe 2 or 3 of them were 1997, everything else was 96 and back. So if they were impressed by that, they ain’t ready for the 3000 shit, they ain’t ready for the Gods Wrath collabo, they ain’t ready.”
Did the Book Of Shabazz open new doors for you in the business?
“Yeah it opened a lotta doors but: there’s more doors to be opened and ‘Passion Of The Hood Christ’ will open them”
You’re quite a veteran in the game but still a lotta people don’t know about you. What should people know about Shabazz The Disciple?
“I still feel that I’m new. Every time I get on stage, it’s like my first time. It’s like bustin a nut, I’m lookin for that nut again, that’s it. Every time I get out here or record a song, I still feel I’m new in the hiphop scene. You got 17 year olds today who were 5 years old when Gravediggaz came out so they don’t know me. These 17 year olds now, I gotta get acquainted with them. And that’s the reason why you gotta reinvent yourself to appeal to them now. That’s why a lotta artists disappear cause they can’t change with the time and be versatile enough to stick in here and last it. No matter how thing’s change, you need to adapt. And that’s how I do, I adapt. So I’ll be a grandfather in a wheelchair in the studio. Just roll me in and roll me out. And here’s what people should know about me: Shabazz loves hiphop to the death, I will die for hiphop, I will live for hiphop. I don’t want nothing else in life, like this is the best thing that ever happened to me in life. Besides having children it’s hiphop. I don’t want nuttin else in life. I’m good with that. I can die after this is over. I love hiphop like that. I’m passionate about what I do, I got a passion to make music. It’s a business and you gotta make money but I got more of a passion than that I wanna make money offa this.”
Are there any other plans with Godz Wrath?
“Me and Godz Wrath, I went to their house for two days and we recorded 7 songs. Those were the most incredible songs. People who hear them, are blown away like it blew their minds. There’s people who call me that they started crying like I touched their spirit, they started seeing God and it be crazy. The chemistry that we create is like no other chemistry. We started off with 7 songs and it came out so incredible that we’re gonna do a whole full Shabazz & Gods Wrath album. That is gonna be one of the most incredible albums recorded ever like ‘Illmatic’, ‘Ready to die’, ‘Reasonable doubt’, ‘Great adventures of Slick Rick’, ‘Paid in full’, ‘Criminal Minded’, ‘It takes a nation of millions to hold us back’”¦those are like blueprints. Hiphop is like a pyramid made of bricks and those albums are bricks. This album we’re gonna do is like one of the bricks that belong in that pyramid. But a pyramid that will be remembered throughout human life. That album is gonna be like that. That’s how crazy the chemistry is.”
What kinda direction are the Wu-Tang Killa Beez going?
“Today was the first show, but we got like 26 more shows so it’s a lotta work, we just really focused on the tour right now but we’ll plan it as we go along because there might be another collaboration album, who knows. It’s always time for it as long we all still alive and we all have the passion, it’s always gonna be some more music. Right now, just tours. We don’t have a studio on the bus or a facility to record else we would have recorded right here and get some work done. It’s not like that on this tour. We got 27 shows and 2 days off and we’re tired already. In a week we’ll be beat up. We don’t have a plan on what direction or what beats, for now we just stay together on the tour.”
More info: http://www.shabazzthedisciple.biz
