TOPIC  (September 2008) | Interview By: Javon Adams

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Interview was done in August 2008

Questions Asked By: Javon Adams

Topic Interview Audio: Listen Here

Topic Gave Dubcnn A Shoutout: Listen Here

 

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Dubcnn: Topic and Dubcnn, it’s beautiful thing. How are you doing man?

I’m doing lovely man. I’m just loungin’.


Dubcnn: In an interview that I came across you mentioned that one of your influences is Ice Cube and that Ice Cube taught you that ‘Less is More’. How do you apply that ‘Less is More’ approach to your career?

The power in a statement a lot of times is not to be gaudy. You look at a lot of Ice Cube’s first album covers, magazine articles and things of that nature that is where I get the less is more approach. Subliminal marketing is a big thing. If you look at a statement like…I tell people time and time again that if you look at the advertising campaign for “Got Milk?” it is just a plain background with the words ‘got milk’ and a question mark. That sh*t is powerful though. I use it the same way and that is what I gather from Ice Cube. You don’t have to have too much in order to make your statement. So I try to do that with my career.

If you look at when I dropped “The Coast Guard” and you look at my album cover and that was the first time that people…because I had a street album out before that called “Start of a Legacy” that didn’t have my face on the cover. It was just a green CD and I did it with my own money so I did everything really minimal. I put everything that represents me and the West Coast on the front cover. But if you look at “The Coast Guard” that was when I knew we were going to put a little bread behind it and I knew people would get a good look at it and I would be able to be in a lot of people’s faces. If you look at that cover it’s just me in a white t-shirt with an L.A. hat on with a regular black background. There’s not a lot of art. If you look at the “American Hustler” and you see the regular mixtape thing or street cover album with the graphics and the art. So I try to apply that in my life or in my career.


Dubcnn: You touched on it a little bit but you bio describes you as being a natural leader. Define what being a natural leader means to you.

It means being able to first and foremost be a good listener. If you’re going to be a good General you have to be a good soldier as well. In order to know the sweetness of victory you have to understand what it is to lose also. It has to be balance. In order to be a good leader you have to understand balance and understand different people. If you are leader than you are leading people or you’re leading something and nothing runs the same because all people aren’t the same. Its like if you have more than one child you have to understand that each child has their own characteristics and you can’t just set rules and expect everybody to be governed by those same rules in the same manor. Everybody is different and as a leader you have to be able to understand that you have these people following me or listening to me or buying into me or becoming fans and you want to be able to set a standard and have morals and principles behind your actions. Not just doing something because it’s hot right now and everybody else is doing it. That’s what a good leader is to me.


Dubcnn: You mentioned how having strong ethics and morals is important but you’re signed to SRC Records if I’m not mistaken. Do you ever find that with a major label having a little bit of pressure to do things that you wouldn’t normally want to do otherwise?

With me, my situation is pretty much open. I’m signed to Steve Rifkind and dude is a legend in the music industry, especially in hip hop. And the flexibility you have being signed to him is unparalleled because he is not the type of exec that wants to structure you this way or that way. He wants to follow in the tradition of what you are doing. He wants to buy into who you are and what you see and he signs artists based on that.

You have to foresee a future for yourself and if he feels he can help you along the way and he can get you to a place where you’re comfortable, where you are both comfortable then that is what he’s going to do. So I don’t really have A&R’s sitting over me saying ‘you gotta do this’ or ‘you gotta do that. You gotta sound this way, you gotta look this way. You gotta act this way’. Ain’t none of that going on in my situation.


Dubcnn: Gotcha. So how are things progressing with the album? I think it’s called “If Not Me, Then Who?”

The album is pretty much done. I did my work and did everything I was supposed to do. But at the same time I don’t want to be one of those artists that’s just sitting on the shelf and no one has a recollection of who I am and nobody knows that its there. There’s plenty albums out right now that if we go to the music store and you can’t name or the majority of the records in there you won’t know who they are. I don’t want to be one of those artists.

What we’re trying to do is get the marketing and awareness up. I’m trying to get my internet presence up and at the same time I’m pushing my single with Trey Songz and just waiting to get my add date for that. Then I can hit radio but at the same time I’m on a constant grind that allows me to do things once again with morals and principles. I don’t wanna have a radio record that makes me into a radio artist. I want to be the type of artist that you can buy the album and really enjoy the album for what it is. Drive to it, listen to it and not just listen to it in the clubs but something to bang when you’re in the car. You know what I’m sayin’, as far as the radio.


Dubcnn: I read where you made mention of the tribulations that you have to go through. Can you give some insight into some of the things that you’ve had to persevere through as an artist and maybe even personally as you try to leave your mark in the music industry.

Man, for me personally I know everybody goes through certain things but I’ve been through a lot. Simply based on the fact that I am a leader and I don’t just do sh*t to just do it. I’m not one those artists that’s out here making moves, trying to get something poppin’…and I know plenty of people out here that have a vision and have a goal. They set a goal for themselves and after the road gets too hard…because the music industry is fu*ked up and it’s frivolous out here right now. The music you hear and the sh*t that we’re digesting on a daily basis through the music industry especially in hip hop and rap is fu*ked up because there’s really no content or substance. There’s no food for thought. No good food. So a lot of times artists say, ‘Well fu*k it man I had a plan to do it this way but it’s taking too long and I’m getting tired. It’s stressing me out.’ Then they just go do anything and sometimes you find less resistance doing that bullsh*t because that’s what everybody is doing.

I’ve never thought like that because I’ve always had an agenda and I always was raised on the good music of the West Coast. Because everybody right now, well not everybody, but a lot of people are trying to tell you how much of a hustler or a street ni**a they are. So people are kinda like nervous and don’t tell you the facts like, “You’re a rapper homie!” You’re not just a hustler. I mean I hustle through my music but I’m a rapper and I do music. I love this sh*t!

With that being said, you go through a lot of tribulations and trials because sometimes when you stand for something…it’s much easier to go do that bullsh*t that everybody is doing. And you’re one person over here saying, ‘Nah, we need to keep it original with a nice texture and integrity in the music.’ That’s how I think and by me thinking that way it makes it hard on your road trying to get to where you’re going because a lot of people are scared to touch that sh*t sometimes until it works. If it works then they gravitate towards it at that point.


Dubcnn: Now I’m not one to fan the flames of beef but I wanted to ask about what seems to be tension between you and Young Maylay over the title “Coast Guard”. Maylay just dropped his project, “The Real Coast Guard”. Do you take that as a shot at you? What’s your take on it?

 watch everything and I follow everything. I listened to the interview to see if there was any tension or beef or whatever. He didn’t really say anything that was derogatory towards me or say anything that would make me want to react in a beef manner. I’m mashing for the West Coast just like he said everybody is mashing for the West Coast. The only difference is…it’s petty to be honest with you because when I dropped “The Coast Guard” I dropped it last year before the summer in ’07. This is ’08 and he’s dropping his Coast Guard. It’s not about what I personally feel as far as an individual because I’m not even on it like that. I don’t give a f*ck about the name ‘The Coast Guard’ as much as he probably does or appears that he does. The thing is this…anybody in their right mind can tell that if I dropped “The Coast Guard” and then you come with a project and name your sh*t “The Real Coast Guard” what are you really saying?

Even if I say that there ain’t no beef…I’ve seen Maylay on a personal level. I’ve seen him in the streets many a times. He knows where I’m at so it ain’t no beef like that but how am I supposed to take it? Just sitting back looking like, ‘Well, I dropped The Coast Guard in 07 and he dropped The Real Coast Guard in 08.’ That would be like me saying, well I’m the First Coast Guard how about that? *laughs* You know what I’m sayin’? I’m the Coast Guard that had the sh*t in the streets and poppin’ before The Real Coast Guard, you feel me? It’s petty and it doesn’t really matter to me and there isn’t any beef. But motherfu*kers just try to do sh*t and throw certain stones sometimes but that sh*t is small to a giant. To be honest with you, Maylay doesn’t really have issues with Topic. And Topic doesn’t have any issues with Maylay to be honest with you.

It kinda stems from something a little bit deeper and you have to understand affiliation has a lot to do with it too. The people you’re affiliated with…if I have certain problems or certain issues or misunderstandings with people you’re directly affiliated with that kinda automatically…any little thing that I do or any little thing that you see that you can shoot at you’re gonna do that sh*t. And I understand. Some of the people that Maylay is affiliated with I’ve had issues with in the past and when he heard the Coast Guard sh*t that was just one more thing that he could use. Man, that sh*t was the title for a street album that I never dropped and an AKA that I use on the West Coast. It doesn’t mean anything to me dog, I’m Topic. That’s my name. Now if a ni**a had problems with that then it would be a whole ‘nother issue because that’s the name I go by. That’s what I represent and that’s what I stand for.

As far as The Coast Guard, The Real Coast Guard, The First Coast Guard or Second Coast Guard that sh*t don’t…I don’t give a f*ck about that sh*t. To be honest with you I don’t even care so there ain’t really no beef. Beef is when you’re around a person and you can’t be there because some sh*t is gonna happen and you really can’t be there because somebody’s going to end up leaving different than the way they came. That’s when you know that you really have a problem and it isn’t like that between me and dude. So the sh*t don’t matter to me man.


Dubcnn: Gotcha. Switching up to something a little lighter, when Topic has a hard day and you are out there grinding in the studio, promoting and doing all of those things to make yourself a successful artist and you need to release…what does Topic do to relax your mind? Do you jump on the XBOX 360? What do you do?

I’ll jump on a plane and go travel. Go to a different state and go relax. I’m real good in Atlanta. I got peoples down there and I like going out there. I like going to New York sometimes. I don’t really play video games or any of that stuff. I’m a real simple dude as far as that’s concerned. I like to go to the movies. I enjoy…I tell people all the time that I really enjoy conversation. I can sit back and talk to one of my ni**as or somebody that I find interesting. Somebody that can shed some information or knowledge to me. We can just sit and chop it up, you know what I mean. I’m an old soul in that manner. I just chill my n*gga. I don’t really get into that extra stuff and plus I don’t really chill with a lot of n*ggas either. So, based on that I have certain issues because sometimes you’re cool with a person but because you’re not that close to them they might feel a certain way about it. You might feel like, ‘I’m cool with Top but he don’t really f*ck around.’ Sometimes people get salty but I feel like the road to the righteous is narrow and I can’t get with a lot these peoples programs out here. I don’t understand it. It’s not that it has to be right or wrong to me but I just don’t understand what a lot of these dudes out here are doing. I know I grew up around or maybe a little bit before a lot of these dudes and when you look at Ice Cube or Pac or the Death Row era you look at WC and Tha Madd Circle and the way they mashed in the game…I know it’s a new West Coast and a new energy and all that but you still have to take some of those qualities and those traits. Especially the integrity of what our Forefathers were doing you have to take and apply. A lot of times I don’t get. Maybe I’m in a different age bracket or something, I don’t know but a lot the sh*t these cats are doing is bullsh*t. I’m not speaking on nobody’s life, I’m speaking on musically. Musically is the way the West Coast and our whole culture will get back on top.

Brothers say, ‘Well, the South.’. Has anybody paid attention to figure out why the South is running the game? In my opinion if you have Ludicris and he’s moving units, Jeezy’s moving units, T.I. and Outkast are moving units and they’re all from Atlanta. Rick Ross is moving units. Lil’ Wayne and Cash Money is moving units. DJ Khaled and them ni**as are making it happen. That’s why they’re on top. Unless we get back to the integrity of the music and make good music that other people besides the back yard of the West Coast can adapt to then we aren’t doing sh*t. There’s got to be a Topic out here, a Glasses Malone a Bishop a Jay Rock a Roccet and whoever. All these people and after awhile people can start saying, ‘They’re doing their thing.’ Artists like Crooked I and whoever else out here that is trying to mash and make a way for themselves we have to mash musically as well. Not just in the streets because we can go to every West Coast party out here and be on dubcnn and this and that…that’s an outlet and it’s a good thing but at the same time we have to get back to the integrity of the music. That’s why Death Row was so powerful in my opinion. It wasn’t the fact that the were all together but you can’t tell me that when Death Row came out that the Dogg Pound wasn’t banging. Rage and Dre’s sh*t was banging. Snoop’s sh*t was banging. Because all of their sh*t was banging people were saying that the West Coast is killing it. Ice Cube comes from left field and his sh*t is banging. E-40 and them is holding the Bay down and his sh*t is banging. We gotta get back to that sh*t.


Dubcnn: Speaking of new stuff that is top notch, your new mixtape is called “American Hustler”, right?

Yessir


Dubcnn: Let folks know where they can cop that. The floor is yours. Any last words for dubcnn?

You can always get with me on the MySpace. I have two pages. They can download the American Hustler mixtape. We basically titled it a pre-album because it’s the album before the album. You can download that on dubcnn or go to my myspace page to download it. It’s on numerous sites that I can’t even name because my label put it everywhere too. All you have to do is search the net and you can download it for free. If you catch me in the streets I always keep a box of work on me, those CD's. Check out WhatIsTheTopic.com. There’s a whole bunch of stuff going on and I’m just trying to get the website and internet awareness up. We just mashing