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Dubcnn Exclusive – Shaun Boothe
By: Jonathan Hay
www.myspace.com/jonathanhay ..........................................................................................

Dubcnn: With your hit record “Poor Boy” - - the song seems to have the theme of the underdog syndrome, a from the bottom up mentality so to speak. Do you feel you take on that role?

Yeah. I think it is easy to relate to the underdog. I think the vast majority of us are underdogs. Only a small percentage of people are at the top and that’s why it’s the top. It’s a small pinnacle of people and we’re all looking at the top, life’s a pyramid that way. That’s definitely what I’ve been about if you listen to my music, you hear a lot of my struggles and things I’ve gone through. You’re going to hear about a young man going against the odds to chase his dream, as irrational as it may seem. As the underdog, you’re excited about doing that. You’re not in the main event and you may be fighting in the under card but you’re still swinging like it’s the main event and belt is on the line; because it is - It always is. Poor Boy isn’t on some ‘woe is me’ shit. They blast the song when you’re walking to the ring and you’re some guy no one’s heard of going up against the champ. Everybody in the arena thinks the champ is just taking an easy fight. The only difference is you’ve sparred with him before. You know you can take him. So you bet all the money you have, even next month’s rent, on yourself, 20-1 odds. That’s Poor Boy. I’m about to enter the ring.


Dubcnn: So what are some situations in your life where you have felt that Shaun Boothe was the underdog? Also, do you still continue to be the underdog?  

Everywhere, to be honest. I can feel the odds stacked against me everywhere I go and in everything I do. But I don’t mind that. If I don’t feel like the underdog then I’m not dreaming big enough. I’m not aiming high enough.

The thing is I still believe I’m gonna’ win, no matter what. Some people see it in me now. Some need more convincing. I’m excited to convince them.

The underdog mentality is more of a state of mind and I sort of apply it to everything I’m doing. If you really think about trying to become a rapper in 2010 and trying to become the next biggest thing or the next Jay-Z, the odds are so stacked against you that you’re inevitably going to be the underdog. I think a lot of people may look at it and think it’s easy because they see music videos but they see videos of artists just jumping into the game and they have Bentley’s and mansions, but the reality behind the curtain is that we’re all struggling and it’s very rare for you to actually be successful.

In that regard musically, music is my life at this point. From a musical standpoint, the odds of me making it are so stacked against me but you can’t even think about that. As the underdog, you don’t sit there and remind yourself that you are the underdog. It just so happens to be that the odds are stacked against you but you can’t let that take away from your belief. It’s irrational but that’s what passion is. A lot of people say it’s not irrational and that you’re doing this because you love doing it and there is nothing else you can or want to do. That’s how I look at it. Am I an underdog? Sure, you can throw me into that category. At the end of the day, I’m just someone chasing his dreams.  


Dubcnn: You try not to pay attention to it but it’s always a thought in the back of your mind. How does one overcome the underdog status and become the favorite?

I really feel like in order to achieve your dreams, you need to believe in it enough to cut the safety net under the tightrope and walk that tightrope knowing that if you fall, that’s it so that’s what I did.  


Dubcnn: As the underdog, how does David defeat Goliath? How does Shaun Boothe as the underdog prove worthy enough to become the Goliath? Or is that something you never want to be altogether?

I just want to be me at the end of the day and realize my full potential. If that means I become a Goliath somewhere along the way, I just hope that Goliath still has the same set of values and is still the same person no matter how big or small I am. How do you do it? I definitely think that the internet has obviously leveled the playing field. Now it’s not necessarily about the flash or as much about the marketing dollars and things like that. People have the freedom of choice now because they can go out there. There may not be as many Goliath’s to tell you the honest truth, but there is a lot more mid-level people doing a lot more now because the playing field has been opened. I think in itself, the whole industry has kind of defeated the Goliath because everyone has their chance to try and be what there potential is.


Dubcnn: Kardinal Offishall hopped on the Poor Boy (Remix) to show some hometown loyalty. As one of your peers, how has he treated you? What has the overall experience around Kardinal been like?

Kardinal is a veteran as far as Canadian hip-hop and internationally he has definitely been doing his thing for a while. He actually reached out when he saw a sneak peak of the video. He loved the song and just hit me up immediately after and said that if I wanted a remix; let me know because I got you for that. I wasn’t even trying to do a remix or thinking about that at the time. Obviously when an opportunity like that comes, I have a lot of respect for what he does as an artist. He’s also shown me a lot of love as far as bringing me on his tours and what not, so I’ve done that as well. It just makes sense. He’s definitely been that dude that I can go to just to pick his brain. He’s laid the foundation for a lot of Canadian artists. Even a Drake, to step in the game and do his thing, we all observe what Kardinal has done, learn from him and take what he’s been doing right and reapplying it. It was a great experience to have him on the remix and to continue having him in my corner is definitely a huge asset.


Dubcnn: Mentioning Drake, both of you are from Toronto. Have you two ever run into each other?

Yeah, definitely. As a city, it’s incredible to see one of our own killing the game the way he is. It’s exciting. To know someone before they rise to fortune and fame is a blessing because it reminds you that we’re all just people. Anything is possible. I think that’s how our city feels right now. We have world-class talent here. And now the world has reason to believe it and dig for more.


Dubcnn: It’s definitely a creative and conceptually rich idea – speaking of, the song “Concepts” you have with Talib Kweli is creatively rich. Tell us about that record and firstly, how it came about.

It’s funny because I’m definitely a big fan of Talib Kweli and I think what he represent to hip hop is incredible, along with his contributions to hip hop are incredible. I always wanted to work with him at some point. I remember one of the first people to reach out to me south of the border was Hi-Tek. He saw a video I did called “The Reporter” which is another conceptual song I did where I took on this anchorman or news reporter persona. He hit me on MySpace and we got to talking. In the back of my head, I was thinking that for him to hit me up and show me love in the conversations we had, he was very humble too, it made me keep going. He’s worked with some of my idols so for him to hit me up meant something to me.

It’s funny that so many years later I had the opportunity to work with Kweli. My manager knew some people and it was more about reaching out because we had this concept or idea. I hit him up and sent him the track; he loved the beat, which is actually something that I produced. The rest is history. To me, I said that if I ever get a chance to work with someone like Kweli, I didn’t just want him to send in a 16 and insert that 16 somewhere in the song. I wanted to really make something with him. That’s definitely what we did with “Concepts.” When you listen to the song, me and Kweli go back and forth exchanging ideas. It was definitely a great experience for me.


Dubcnn: I remember that “Reporter” music video. You went under a different name at that time, correct?

I went through some name changes. From the very beginning, people used to ask me why I don’t just go by my real name, Shaun Boothe. They think it’s a real dope government name with the “Boothe” thing connected to hip-hop. For me, I was at a point where I didn’t want to put my real name out there for whatever reason. It was such a natural thing for me. I definitely took the scenic route to get there. But now that I’m going by my real government name, everything feels right. I’m glad it’s happened now when I’m making my official push internationally as opposed to some of the local stuff when I was going under a different name.


Dubcnn: Ok. Because you mentioned the “Reporter” video, I remember the Chamillionaire controversy. Can you address that?

I’ll address it. The Chamillionaire thing, there was definitely a lot of controversy around that with my “Reporter” video. What had happened was, the video ended up winning a universal competition for an independent music video. I guess 4-5 months later, Chamillionaire had his song called “The Evening News.” Just to give you a premise of what the song is, it’s basically taking on the persona of an anchorman and in the chorus, I altered my voice to make it a little humorous and touched on social issues in a creative way – rapping as an anchorman. Chamillionaire ended up coming out with his video 4-5 months later and it was actually after my song was done and it kind of rejuvenated everything.

The blogs went crazy with it saying Chamillionaire stole this idea and who was the first to do it? It’s funny to me because a lot of people hit me up wanting me to battle him and a lot of DJ’s wanted that battle track or whatever. To me, it was a great opportunity to get my video out again and that obviously led to me getting to connect with people like Hi-Tek because of the controversy and negativity unfortunately spreads a lot faster than creativity and talent.

I still think it was a good thing personally. Chamillionaire had actually spoken on it a few times. When he came to Toronto he said “great minds think alike and shout out to Shaun Boothe.” He saw the video and thought I was talented. That was enough for me to be like alright, cool. I’m not going to use something negative like that to try and get my name out with that.

I’m glad I waited and used something like the Unauthorized Biography Series as my calling card to let people know what I’m about as opposed to being the disgruntled rapper from Toronto that got his idea stolen by a platinum artist. 


Dubcnn: No doubt. You mentioned about waiting to get your name out there via the right way and that came in the form of the Unauthorized Biography Series. A lot of notoriety has come from that. To give people the background on that, it’s a series where you rap the biographies of certain legendary figures. Diddy & Swizz Beats even “tweeted” [Twitter] about it. Tell us about that.

That was incredible. The bio series started off by doing people like James Brown, Bob Marley, Muhammad Ali, Barrack Obama, and Jimi Hendrix and then we got to Diddy. With that, I was very curious because unlike Bob Marley & James Brown, Diddy is out there and active; he’s a media mogul and he’s everywhere. I felt like that could be one of the first opportunities to actually get feedback from someone I did a bio on, considering I don’t have Obama on speed dial like Hov [Jay-Z] does. I thought that was something where I could actually hear feedback from someone. For it to get to him and to have him “tweet” about it, knowing that he’s a media mogul and he’s very image conscious and aware, for him to praise it on the radio and on Twitter, it meant a lot to me. It was apart of the Unauthorized Biography Series, but I felt like this was the first time it was actually approved by the actual person who was the subject of the song.


Dubcnn: The series has been crazy. Not only Diddy, but people who are very close to some of the other subject’s of the bio series have reached out as well. We just learned that Muhammad Ali’s oldest daughter reached out and praised you. Did you really think when you started the series that so many people the subjects are directly related to would take notice?

Not at all. I definitely did the series just to do it. I wanted to come in the game where it wasn’t about my ego or about me or negativity. It was really about putting a spotlight on people I personally felt deserved more attention and that spotlight. I didn’t have any expectations. I must say, for Muhammad Ali’s daughter and one of James Brown’s daughters actually reached out as well, it meant a lot beyond just YouTube clicks or any of that kind of stuff. That meant the most to me because these are the people that are closest to these people. The Diddy “tweet” meant the most to me because it was actually coming directly from that person. These things obviously are tributes to them and capturing what they are. It’s not just me telling the facts because I didn’t want to do that, but to capture the essence of who they are. The Muhammad Ali one, with his daughter reaching out, she specifically said that I captured what Ali was really about. It’s more than boxing. With all the people actually that I focused on, I looked at people, artist’s or icons that transcend the genre that they’re in. Muhammad Ali was more than boxing and Bob Marley was more than reggae music. I try and do that and capture that. It was great. That to me makes it all worthwhile. It’s definitely a lot of work just getting the videos done and all that stuff. To know that it’s actually connecting, it makes it worth it.


Dubcnn: With it connecting, how do you think getting their co-sign whether it’s via Twitter, on radio or personal phone calls to you, how has that served your outlook on where your career is headed from here on out? 

It’s great. To get that co sign from somebody like a Diddy, it’s just like how I felt when Hi-Tek reached out. You know that these people have worked with the greatest. For them to take that moment to acknowledge your work creatively, that definitely motivates me. The nature of music right now, there is so much of an emphasis on co-signs and established people co-signing or introducing new stuff to people. Even the Diddy or Swizz Beats “tweet”, a lot of people around me validated the whole series and I had a lot of people coming back to me saying that they saw the Diddy “tweet” and it made them go back to the beginning of the bio series and had to watch it all from the start, going through every single chapter of the series. That’s part of the game and I understand it and appreciate it. Since the Diddy thing, a lot of schools have actually reached out saying they want to use the biographies as educational tools in their classes. Even that, it goes to show how one little tiny thing can ripple into something bigger.


Dubcnn: What is the one stereotype that you want to eliminate about Canadian rappers?

I just never fully understood why we always get categorized as ‘Canadian rappers.’ No one says ‘American rappers’. New York rappers are different from Atlanta rappers. Toronto is completely different from the rest of Canada. I think the problem is, people take all the stereotypes of Canada as a whole and try and stick it on us like that’s what we represent. So they end up thinking we’re corny and rap about maple syrup and shit.

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