John Cena

[Kal EL]

WRESTLING-NEWS.COM
John Cena Says WCW 'Misused' Master P; Speaks On Hip Hop & Wrestling, WWE, More

Posted on Apr 5, 2005                         <<BACK TO NEWSBOARD
By Anthony DeBlasi
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John Cena Says WCW 'Misused' Master P; Speaks On Hip Hop & Wrestling, WWE, More

 



The following interview is in this month's issue of XPOZ Magazine:

Wrestling is a profession that we all have experience in. Not all of us grapple with another person to score a pin fall victory, but we do battle with the weight of peer pressure, decision-making, and getting others to believe in what we do. Growing into a working adult, I had to wrestle with proving that I could make a living as an urban entertainment journalist. Every day I wrestle with words, trying to describe in writing what I feel about a certain artist. I have to make readers believe in what I’m saying, proving the subject to be real.

In the genre of hip-hop, there is a lot of wrestling. Rappers have to slam the microphone, which translates to making an impact with their words and voice through a fiber optic device. Hip-hop is a product of the streets, so rappers must also prove their credibility. They have to prove they belong, that they can survive in the culture.of hip-hop and that they are worthy of representing their ‘hood. Like a wrestling ring, the art form is territorial. Their skill must be showcased with honesty or the fans will eat them alive. No one wants to disrespect the art form with being a gimmick, or “whack”, “fake”, or “studio.” Rappers wrestle with proving they are real. Imagine what John Cena is going through.

Cena is a professional wrestler for World Wrestling Entertainment, one of the most scrutinized and criticized professions in the world. How often do you hear someone refer to that sport as fake? People don’t often take into account the physical demand and skill required to be a wrestler. Not just anybody can be a professional wrestler.

Cena is also a rapper – a white rapper from West Newberry, Massachusetts. Every week he is on TV making millions of people believe in his physical entertainment, but now he has to make millions of hip-hop fans believe that he is worthy of representing so-called “Black music.” People don’t often take into account the mental demand and skill required to be a rapper. Not just anybody can be a rapper. But everybody is a critic.

When I arrived to interview Cena I was being a critic. I hadn’t asked a single question yet, but I was already grading what I was going to say. I was pacing about, juggling my bag and fidgeting with my recorder. I was talking to myself and making gestures with my hands. I felt like the employees there were looking at me like I didn’t belong.

WWE agent Tim White approached me signaling that it was time to meet Cena. “So, are you ready?” he asked as we entered the elevator. I was wondering if he was just making conversation, or if he thought I looked unprepared. I nodded my head yes.

“Cena is a good kid,” White said to me. “I really enjoy being on the road with him. He’s a real genuine person. Just a real nice guy.

”There was that word again – ‘real’. White said it twice. As foolish as this may sound, I began to wrestle with the idea that he was just trying to sway my impression of Cena. It was not that I didn’t believe him, but I was wrestling with being nervous. I’m about to meet a 6’ 1” two hundred forty pound man that I basically have to judge. I didn’t want to make a bad impression myself, let-alone piss him off. He throws around guys three-times my size for a living. The elevator opened and there was Cena. He was relaxing in a metal foldup chair that doubles as a weapon for pro wrestlers. I didn’t want him to go upside my head with it, so I had to make sure I didn’t look at him funny or say something stupid. “There is the man right there,” White said to me with a smile. Cena stood up and began to walk toward me.

Cena is huge – much bigger in person than on television. I knew I had to shake his hand, which for me is a great measuring tool of whether a person is real or not. Cena’s grip was not over-powering and wasn’t quick. He didn’t shake my hand like he thought it was what he should do; he shook my hand like he was really glad to meet me.

“Yeah, man, I’ve been looking forward to this. Are you ready to get to it?” Cena asked as we walked toward the table where he was sitting. “You’re a … big … dude,” I said stupidly. Cena glanced over his shoulder, looking at me like he was thinking, “Is this dude for real?”

I analyzed my subject. Cena wasn’t wearing one of the sports jerseys that he supposedly is biting from rappers or stealing from hip-hop fashion to bring urban dollars and viewers to wrestling. He was wearing a pair of blue jean shorts, a pair of classic Reebok Pumps, a baseball cap, and a black and white t-shirt that had Mega Man on the front. Cena didn’t look like someone playing a so-called “hip-hop character” on a weekly cable program. He looked, well, comfortable. And when you’re comfortable just being yourself, it doesn’t get any more real than that.

XPOZ – You obviously have a sense of fashion, so tell us about your style.

John Cena – I firmly believe that style is what you make it. My sense of style would be not to follow the crowd. I am definitely not a suit and tie guy. I’m not a designer kick guy. You’ll see me in … I don’t want to say the cheapest shit because I like nice stuff. But I’m not going to go out of my way to look business. I act business. I do business. I’m a small town common kid. That’s who I am, and I’m never forgetting that. I like to get my hands
dirty. I work for a living.

XPOZ – So how do you feel about people talking about you wearing jerseys like you’re disrespecting?

Cena – First and foremost I’m a sports fan. So I rock jerseys, and that’s why I keep rocking jerseys. Everybody claims that jerseys are a fad. I don’t wear certain jerseys because they’re popular. I wear jerseys to honor the athletes of the cities I’m in. If we go to Cleveland I’ll rock a Jim Brown [jersey] because of what he accomplished as an athlete. If I’m in Boston, I’m in a Ted Williams [jersey]. I love sports, so I want to pay homage to the cities because we tour worldwide. So you can always catch me in a pair of jean shorts, a pair of Pumps or another type of sneaker, and a jersey or a t-shirt. I always wear a ball cap.

XPOZ – Do you find that to be disrespectful to you when people say jerseys are a fad and that you’re just following it? People have been wearing jerseys as long as I can remember.

Cena – I know. When “Do The Right Thing” came out, Spike Lee had on the Jackie Robinson jersey. That’s been since way back. Jerseys won’t go away because sports keeps producing heroes. To say it’s a fad … that’s fashion talking. That’s not sports talking. Jerseys that have your area code or whatever – the ones that are not authentic sports jerseys, I can understand that might be a fad. Like white tees or wearing pink. That stuff is the trade winds of fashion.

XPOZ – What sports do you like the most?

Cena – I’m a football fan. Over the years, baseball has slowly won me back. The strike season killed me, but the McGuire/Sosa thing got me interested again. And of course with me being from Boston, everything with the Red Sox [laughs] … I’m definitely back in the swing of things. But I am a football guy. I used to be heavy into the college game, but now I’m more into the pros. So, football and baseball.

XPOZ – How much has the way you dress and your appearance contributed to your popularity?

Cena – I think big time. I love wrestling. Don’t get me wrong – that is truly what I love, so I’ma be here rain, shine, or snow. But I’m not too big on rolling around with another dude in spandex. I mean ... there is a place for that or whatever-whatever. This is not only a sport, but it’s sports entertainment. It’s sports with personality. This is my personality. This is me in the ring, this is what I do. When people think of wrestling, they automatically stereotype it as a bunch of big dudes rolling around in tights. This is just my way of saying we’ve got everything else going on too. This is the first time WWE has gone open arms into the field of hip-hop. And I always tell people that I’m not the perfect ambassador for it, but at least they’re giving it a chance. If I can do something to just break that wall down … for so long the spandex and long hair have been trademarks of Rock’N Roll. People don’t realize
it, but this is ground breaking stuff. They’re being more open-minded about the way things are. For so long wrestlers looked like your 80’s glam rock’n roll stars.

XPOZ – Like the Fabulous Freebirds.

Cena – Exactly! And there is nothing wrong with that. There is a place for that too, but music is diverse. And hip-hop is a monster. So much of marketing today is based around urban promotions! So it’s about time WWE opened up and said that genre is perfectly welcomed here. And I’m proud to go out on Smackdown and dress the way I want and be who I am. That’s just an expression of self.

XPOZ – So what do you say to people who are overly critical about hip-hop’s advancement into markets and outlets where it wasn’t originally accepted
or available?

Cena – That’s where this comes from … [Points to his baseball cap.] It says ‘Fuck Rules.’ There are two sides to that coin. There are mainstream people who are not ready to accept hip-hop, and then there are the hip-hop people claiming sell-out! Either way, their thought process is wrong. The hip-hop people claiming sell-out … I can understand when it’s just someone trying to make a buck off the music. I’ve got an album that’s gonna drop on May 10th that’s been in the works for three years. I put forth my own money; I signed all my rights over to WWE. I’m not making a penny off of this. I’m doing this because I love hip-hop. For someone to scream sell-out is the wrong way to go. They need to be proud that, fuck man, hip-hop has finally got to wrestling. So if I’m a hip-hop head and I’m watching wrestling … but I can’t tell my boys about it because it’s a rock’n roll sport, now you can get out of the closet. You can fucking say, yo, we’re repping hiphop on WWE. My boy Cena is kicking ass for all of us. Hopefully, it’ll open the door for more people. My boy [Rey] Mysterio is rocking the Gucci baggy pants … it’s getting there.

XPOZ – Rey Mysterio has been rapping since he was in WCW.

Cena – But it was so disrespectful the way WCW handled it. Hip-hop was hot, so they were just like, ‘okay, lets throw these guys out.’ Master P tried to get involved, but he was just misused. It was just Ted Turner thinking he could make a buck using those guys.

XPOZ – Rey and Konan aside, WCW came in fake.

Cena – Dude I started doing dark matches on Velocity, which not a lot of our viewing base watches, but I was still doing me. I was rapping for myself and rapping for hip-hop. I never took anything lightly. It’s not just ‘another thing,’ so every second matters to me. That’s how I do it all the time. So over the course of time, we have attracted more of an urban fan base. But our hardcore fans that we still have, the reason they’re still on board is because they’re saying, ‘you know what, I may not like hip-hop but that dude is just being himself. And I fucking respect believability.’ That’s why it’s caught on so much. So for certain people to say hip-hop is growing too fast or selling out, those people should be happy that their monster has grown into this u n s t o p p a b l e Frankenstein. That is the utmost form of flattery to those true, true hiphop heads that bleed underground hip-hop and hate on c o m m e r c i a l . They need to embrace the fact that hiphop, their art form, the art form that they love so much that they’ve gotta hate it on the other side, has gone everywhere. True fans of the music will be able to tell – ‘okay, that mutha fucka is trying to make a quick buck, he’s real, he’s not, he’s just going off somebody else.’ So there is a little decision making process to determine who is repping hip-hop and who is ripping off the culture.

XPOZ – How does all that make you feel?

Cena – I love the fact that it’s spreading, man. The fact that a kid from West Newberry, like me, can go out and breathe hip-hop life into a culture that doesn’t have any is fantastic. And I can still go in the hood and get rep! I walk in Jamaica Queens where I buy my jewelry and cats is like, yo that’s Cena, man! That’s the kid! That’s hip-hop, man. It’s not about your color; it’s about the culture. And that’s a wonderful thing.

XPOZ – How do you feel when you go into an area where there are socalled “hillbillies” or traditional old school wrestling fans, and you spit a freestyle and you have everybody on their feet? Even the ones who like Nascar, horses, and country music are behind you.

Cena – That is a personal victory that I have been planning for, for the past two years. If you remember, when I first started doing hip-hop on air, every mutha fucka in the building booed me. For almost two years, they wanted me fucking killed! It was not just, ‘who does this white kid think he is?’ but also, ‘I’m tired of this rap shit!’ That’s what it was, but I didn’t say I was going to stop if they didn’t accept it. If you don’t like it, thenyou don’t like me. If you don’t like me, I don’t give a shit! I’m going out there to do my thing anyway.

XPOZ – And if you did stop, people would really start calling you fake.

Cena – You know what I’m saying? I keep doing my thing. When we go in areas that’s not predominantly hip-hop crowds… then it’s not the music, it’s the character. They may not like hip-hop, but they know, first of all, that what I’m saying is funny as hell. And second of all, I stand behind it. That is me. There were urban cats cheering for Stone Cold Steve Austin… and he’s 100% redneck! They don’t like him because he’s a redneck, they like a mutha fucka who kicks ass, who talks about kicking ass, and means what he says and does what he says. That’s the point of it. Not only is it a victory for hip-hop culture that we got to the WWE, but it’s also a chance for people who aren’t used to the culture to be like, ‘man, you know … that hip-hop stuff aint so bad.’ It’s an introduction to a different market. And the way people respond - albeit negative or positive - is a fact that they’re entertained.

 

 




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[-Euthanasia-]

 Fresh off of his victory at Wrestlemania (Yes, ya boy is a wrestling fanatic just coming back from Wrestlemania!), new world champion John Cena is taking his on screen persona and translating it to music. His official album is coming out in May and is titled "You Can't See Me" and his first single is "Bad Bad Man" featuring an emcee by the name of Trademarc and none other than Freddie Foxxx himself. Many people may be bugging out about a wrestler rapping but if you have caught wrestling lately his intro music is the shit! I mean if some of these bum ass rappers can sell records why can't John Cena? And to make it a little more serious, Jake One (Yeah De La's "Rock Co Kane Flow" Jake One) is chipping in some production. I ain't saying he's the next Eminem, but this could be a little interesting to check out. -HipHopSite.com

cant wait for may 10th
or i guess, early May...bootlegging 

[The_One]

He's a clown

[-Euthanasia-]

<gasp>

[Sikotic™]

Misuse Master P? He should of never even been used.