RHYMEFEST (June 2005) | Interview By: Yash

      Dubcnn.com had the opportunity to speak with one of the best battle mc's in the world! He won against Eminem in 1997, He co-wrote "Jesus Walks" with his childhood friend Kanye West and I gotto say he was one of the nicest and most humble person I've ever spoken to. Im talking about Rhymefest ofcourse! He told us about his upcoming album, the battle against Eminem, working with Kanye West, Old Dirty Bastard, the beef with Juice, tips for upcoming rappers, the Brooklyn Festival, his biggest inspiration source plus many more questions were answered in this in-depth interview! Feel free to send any feedback regarding the interview to: yash@dubcnn.com


Huge thanks to Rhymefest for taking time out to answer the questions fans wanted to know! ( Interview was done over the phone on June 2nd 2005 )

Questions Asked By : Yash

Transcribed By : Inspire

Rhymefest Gave Dubcnn.com A Shoutout! Check That Here

Listen to the interview by clicking : Here

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Dubcnn: Can you introduce yourself to the Dubcnn viewers that are not familiar with your work right now?


Uh huh, well yo, my name is rhymefest, you may know me from, not from everything I've done, but some of the things that I worked with, I uhm just won a grammy for co-writing Jesus Walks,

I worked with Ol' Dirty Bastard, you may know him as Dirt McGirt, on his new project "A Son Unique", we wrote some songs together such as "Lift Yah Skirt", and the song with him and I on "Back And Fourth" called Dirty Dirty. I also am a battle champion, I battled everywhere from London at the Jump Off to Dublin, Ireland.

I battled Eminem in 1997 at a competition called Brooklyn Jam and I beat him, and I currently have an album coming out on Allido/J Records, entitled "Blue Collar Poppin".

Dubcnn: Alrite, we're going to get in to that later. So how has Scribble Jam 2003 and the success of Jesus Walks effected your career?

Man you know about Scribble Jam 2003 all the way over there?

Dubcnn: Yeah man, I know.

Oh man. See, Scribble Jam is what I always do, thats battling; thats performing, you know what I mean? And the battling keeps me on point as far as being a performer. I don't do it to even claim to be the best battler, I do it to keep my spontuanity as far as being an entertainer, so that prepares me for my stage show, that prepares me for my tour;as far as people helping out with the "Jesus Walks" I'm a Muslim, you know?

And I was happy to be a member of a vehicle of a song that changed the world, as a Muslim and to help write a song like that - it changed people all faiths it helped to do something in the life of people of all faiths. And I can't take the whole credit for it and I don't believe Kanye can take credit for it because at the end of the day I believe the credit for that song goes to the creator.

Dubcnn: Right. So how did you meet up with Kanye West?

Well Kanye West and I grew up together, you know what I'm sayin', we would always be writing songs together as teenagers and he recognised that I had talent, I was a local battle hero and he recognised that to work with me would be beneficial for him - And I listened to his music and what he was doing and I realised that to work with him would be beneficial to me.

Sometimes what you have to do, and this is before he was famous - so what you have to do sometimes is find the right team, and when you find the right team you ride with them to end.

Dubcnn: Yeah, Fo' Sho. So whats your biggest inspiration source?

Uhm, my biggest inspiration, number one is no fear. When your scared, when you hold fear in your heart; I believe that's synd, and so my thing is that as long as I have no fear, no fear of dying, no fear of failing, no fear of getting beaten by any man; because my fear is reserved for a higher source.

As long as I go forth with no fear, I'm good.

Dubcnn: Right

I can do anything, and as long as what I'm doing is from what I believe, and what would seem to be the righteous standpoint. And if its not, it's a learning process.

This music that we're doing, it's a learning process. We learn what works, we learn what doesn't work, we learn that what we said that was wrong and we try to correct it.

We talk about our inadequacy as men and as women because we know that there is someone out there going through that, their relating to that, you know what I mean?

Dubcnn: Yeah, Fo' Sho. So tell us about that upcoming album you got, "Blue Collar Poppin".

Blue Collar Poppin' is coming out September 20th, for those of you all who don't know what blue collar is; in the mid-west where I live at there's alot of blue collar workers, and that is like the guy who comes and picks up the trash in the street, the guy who fixes the elevator, the guy who delivers your mail; these are all blue collar jobs, the average guy.

And this album is about the average guy trying to be a little bit more, like trying to navigate through the hardships of getting up and working everyday and coming home to a mediocre looking girl and not necessarily having the ice but wanting to have that. So these songs, while they all work on their own, man; when you listen to the album together - it all works as a story too in the life of this guy, this blue collar guy that wants to be a fly.

So hes collar poppin', hes blue collar poppin'. It comes out September 20th, what you can do in July, is go out and get the Common album, get "Be", and then two months later in July, your going to get Kanye's album. Then two months later in September your going to get my album and you'll have the trilogy, the chicago trilogy, you'll see how it goes down.

Dubcnn: So who has been doing the production on the album and who do you have featured?

Well, I'm signed to Allido Records which is Mark Ronson, thats one of my labels. So Mark did like five joints on there, I mean crazy hot songs.

Then you've got No I.D, who used to work with Common, he did "I used to love her", he did the whole Resurrection album, he did Commons first three albums. No I.D did five joints for me, then we've got Cool and Dre.

Dubcnn: Oh, getting hot right now.

Yeah, I got two Cool and Dre tracks and then I got a Kanye track.

Dubcnn: Alrite, sounds hot man. Is Kanye rapping on the album or just producing?

Oh you know he is, we don't just get down with just beats we get down!

Dubcnn: Sounds hot. Ok, so another question from the fans is: Why did you diss Juice, and is the beef squashed with DJ Third Rail and Juice?

Wow, all the way overseas, whats the deal? Well, for the people who don't know, Juice and I have a long history that goes beyond rap and I'm not looking at Juice like I don't like him, but we go back and forth you know what I mean?

Anybody who really knows the history of Juice and Rhymefest, knows that we used to battle all the time in Chicago like keep going back and forth. But when Juice gets in the room, it's all smiles and hand shakes.

But as rappers, we have to stay on our stuff - If you think somebody is hot, you have to be as hot as them. And at this point I dont feel like I even have to compete with Juice, but I do feel like Juice is a very worthy MC and I ain't got nothing to give to that brother but healthy competition, you've got to keep those blades sharp.

As far as Third Rail, me and Third Rail had a disagreement; me and him sat down, I called him on the phone and after we had been going back and forth, I called him on the phone and we talked about it and we worked it out and we're good. Actually I think I'm gonna go wid Third Rail next week.

Dubcnn: Thats tight.

But that is what Hip-Hop is supposed to be

Dubcnn: It's about battling and competition, it makes you better right.

Yeah, it ain't about guns, it ain't about getting in the streets and fighting like we're uncivilised. It's about mental competition, it's about being a gladiator with your rhymes - and if nothing else, thats what I am.

Dubcnn: So which MC battle do you remember the most, out of all the MC's you have battled with?

Eminem, JUICE and Swan

Dubcnn: Can you speak on that, like how was it? was there tension in the air and shit like that?

Anytime you get in the ring there is tension in the air because you could win or you could lose, lose your pride, your humble, your ego. It's when you feel elated about the whole thing.

Dubcnn: How did he feel about losing, was he a humble dude? How was Eminem?

Nobody ever feels like they should of lost, from what I heard he said he felt like I wrote my rap. Everybody has excuses about why they lost, but at the end of the day its a battle. You can say oh he won because his gun was bigger than mine, if we had the same sized guns, we'd have the same bullets.. *Laugh*

Dubcnn: Okay, so if you could pick four rappers and do one song with them, who would you pick and what producer would you have produce the beat?

I would pick M.F Doom, Rhymefest, Immortal Technique and Dead Prez.

Dubcnn: Who would produce it?

I would have Just Blaze do the beat because it'd be accessible commercially, but it'd still be hard.

Dubcnn: Yeah, who was the first guy you mentioned, I couldn't hear you..

M.F Doom, M.F Doom was big, are you familiar with him?

Dubcnn: M.F Doom? Yeah, I know him. We had an interview with Immortal Technique the other month too, he was a cool guy.

Dubcnn: Alright what kind of skills impress you the most when your listening to a new artist?

Can he do simili's and metaphor's. Not just be corny and use them just to say he's the best but can he tell a story, does he have a concept, is he gunna be who he is, can I feel him personally, his struggle. Not how dope he is or how he's going to rip your head apart but who he is as a man, it's time we grew up in Hip-Hop.

Somebody grown but still had the essence of skills who's rap skills would pre date Biggie Smalls and Tupac.

Dubcnn: Alright. Do you have any tips for any upcoming rappers?

Never quit, never stop. If you know that this is what you were put here to do, don't let nobody tell you any differently.

Dubcnn: Okay, Where do you think Hip-Hop will be in about thirty years?

Evolved in to another form of music, well it would probably go tojust producers and DJ's all you hear the rappers is them saying something and the DJ's would scratch it up.

Dubcnn: So what does Rhymefest do when he's not in the studio or on stage?

Rhymefest has custody of his son because Im a family man Rhymefest hangs with his child and hangs with his sister and mother. Showing the people of another generation to wanna get up and be about something.

Dubcnn: Alright, can you tell us about the Brooklyn Festival that you're going to be performing at?

I hope I don't get boo'd *laugh*

Dubcnn: *laugh* I bet you won't

EY Thanks alot man for calling me!

Dubcnn: It's all good bro.