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BISHOP LAMONT
(February 2011) | Interviewer Paul Edwards 
It was almost 5 years ago when Paul Edwards contacted Dubcnn with the
idea he had to write a book focusing on the "Art & Science of the Hip-Hop
MC" and asking for help in speaking to artists themselves to get their
input. Years later and with more interviews than countless journalists will
ever manage to secure Paul finally released his epic read to critical
acclaim and commercial success, it has been in Amazon's Top 10 Hip-Hop and
Rap books since it came out and it's also being published in Japanese and
Korean.
"How
to Rap: The Art and Science of the Hip-Hop MC" is compiled
from interviews with over 100 MCs, and featuring many West Coast artists.
Highlights include – Shock G describing working with 2Pac and his writing
processes, RBX on ghostwriting for Dr. Dre, Lady of Rage explaining how she
comes up with flows and content, B-Real recalling how he came up with
Cypress Hill’s biggest hits, Crooked I on writing lyrics down and using tape
recorders, DJ Quik discussing being both an MC and a produce, E-40 on coming
up with slang and rhythms and much more.
Other West Coast artists and groups interviewed include Bishop Lamont,
Cashis, Crooked I, Yukmouth, Glasses Malone, Guerilla Black, Omar Cruz,
Spider Loc, The Federation, Tha Alkaholiks and more.
Now, thanks to the great relationship between Dubcnn and Paul Edwards, the
writer has given Dubcnn EXCLUSIVE rights to release all the
key WestCoast interviews that were compiled to create "How
to Rap: The Art and Science of the Hip-Hop MC." Each
of these interviews give an insight into an artists thought process around
creating a track and help you understand why being a Hip-Hop MC is truly an
Art and Science!
Read on and enjoy. As always feel free to hit up
the forum with questions or comments.
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Previous "How To Rap" Interview Installments
Week One:
The Lady Of Rage
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Questions Asked By: Paul Edwards in February 2007
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How to Rap: How did you learn to rap – where did you pick up the
skills and techniques?
Bishop Lamont: Damn, you hit me with a hard question first! I
think it translated from singing, both my aunties were singers, so going
with them as a kid and watching them sing, I would mimic their singing,
and through talking, I guess in a sense, as a kid. And listening to a
lot of old R&B and rock songs and taking it from singing form into rap
form.
How to Rap: Did you ever memorize the lyrics to other rap songs
as a way of learning?
Bishop Lamont: Yeah, that’s the way you do it to learn rhythms and
characteristics.
How to Rap: Were there any particular songs that you memorized?
Bishop Lamont: Walk This Way - Run DMC, anything from Too Short off the
first album, Das EFX…
How to Rap: Did you write a lot of raps as a way of learning?
Bishop Lamont: Yeah, you know practice makes perfect, but I was doing it
just to be doing it, it was the cool thing to do. I remember the first
time I freestyled a rhyme, it was only to impress some girls.
How to Rap: How long did it take you to learn how to rap?
Bishop Lamont: Man, I was doing it for years, I was doing it since I was
twelve, I couldn’t even tell you when it started to make sense ‘cause we
used to kick it in the treehouse as kids. When we’re eleven, twelve and
be kicking the worst rhymes in the world but we thought they were fresh…
probably five years… it’s vague, probably took somewhere around four to
five years to see some kind of fluidness with it at whatever point that
was.
How to Rap: How much practice did you have during that time?
Bishop Lamont: You had to do it everyday, it had to be, that was the
only way to get better at it, it wasn’t like, “I’ll just do it on
Saturdays, but during the week at school…” nah, we were doing it
everyday, that’s why we didn’t pay attention in class.
How to Rap: Was there a point where you consciously sat down and
decided to do it?
Bishop Lamont: I didn’t even make a conscious effort of going, “this is
what I’m gonna do with my life,” it was just a great outlet and it all
started from when we was breakdancing and we was doing all types of
stuff to stay out of trouble and it was just a means of doing something
fun and keeping us out of trouble. And the girls liked it, so I guess it
was more subconscious than anything.
How to Rap: Do you listen mainly to hip-hop for your
inspiration?
Bishop Lamont: I don’t listen to hip-hop at all for lyrics inspiration,
unless it’s old school hip-hop, but there’s not that much dopeness out
there besides Outkast records or Little Brother or Slum Village or
Biggie’s second album and first album, 2pac, All Eyez On Me and Me
Against The World, Souls Of Mischief first album, Keith Murray…
primarily all old classic stuff. I think the most recent would be Slum
Village and Little Brother that I listen to right now, Kardinal Offical.
But other than that, I just listen to old rock and roll, R&B, Jazz, like
Coltrane, Miles Davis – Bitches Brew, Thelonious. I really don’t listen
to hip-hop to make hip-hop. For me, I can’t do it that way.
How to Rap: Is there a process you go through when you’re
writing lyrics?
Bishop Lamont: It’s always a process, what do you mean in particular?
How to Rap: I mean do you have a set way of doing things, do you
sit down with paper?
Bishop Lamont: I used to sit down with paper until I got so used to just
writing for other artists, on-hand, on deck, right there in the studio,
so pretty much I stopped writing on paper. Like being at home just with
the beats and really just being in the studio and letting beats play and
whatever the beat tells me to do is then what I jot down and start
vibing from there. But I really don’t write at home anymore, I been
trying to get back into that mode but it really works best for me in the
essence, right in the moment in the studio. The only thing I really do
outside the studio is freestyling.
How to Rap: Do you write to the beat you will be rapping over,
or do you write without the beat?
Bishop Lamont: You gotta write with the beat or the rhythms won’t be in
sync, I mean you can make it work, but it’s always better if it’s
customized specifically for that.
How to Rap: Do you write a whole song in one go, or do you do it
all in bits and then put it together?
Bishop Lamont: You can write a whole song like that, or you can take
your time and write it in bits and pieces, it just depends on the
inspiration level and what level of discipline and quality you’re trying
to get out of it. If it’s one of these really, really heavy cerebral
records then you might be spending some days and sometimes weeks. If
it’s really easy, off the cuff, just busting, you can get two or three
in one day, it depends.
How to Rap: Do you usually start with an idea for the subject
matter or do you come up with some rhyming phrases first?
Bishop Lamont: All the above, it just depends you know, you might have
something that pops in your mind from watching a movie or a commercial
or somebody sparks a conversation that gets you a title for a record.
You don’t know what the hell it means or what it’s about, but it’s been
buzzing around your head or a line will come to you that’s slick and all
of a sudden you get a beat CD and a beat compliments whatever that
thought was, then you got a whole record, it gives you a whole concept
for a song.
How to Rap: Do you do a lot of editing with your lyrics, do you
go back and change things until it’s finished?
Bishop Lamont: Sometimes you write a record and it’s first verse, second
verse, third verse and then it might be so potent on the third verse
that you decide to switch the second verse with the third verse, things
of that nature. You might wanna re-lay the hook, you might have been
able to nail it a little bit doper with the way you want the pocket of
the rhythms or whatever. Pretty much simple things like that, but I
never really change anything because by the time it touches the
microphone, it’s gonna be correct, it’s a serious process to get it
complete before you even touch it on the mic and you do the rest of your
cleanup on the mic.
How to Rap: Do you have a way of writing down the rhythms and
the flow – how the lyrics will fit to the beat?
Bishop Lamont: That’s just being right there in the moment because you
can forget the pockets, you can forget the rhythm if you don’t jot it
down and spit it out right then and there because there’s really no way,
so far, to put down the rhythms you have in mind, to write them down in
word form so you remember and will be able to perform them the same way
you had in your mind or how you set up the verse, so you really have to
do that in the moment. [Note: the book How to Rap includes a system for
writing down the flows, so it now exists.]
How to Rap: Which part of a track do you write first, the hook
or the verses?
Bishop Lamont: Either way, it’s no holds barred with that, sometimes the
hook will come first, you’ll be like, “yo, I know what I wanna do for
the hook,” and the hook feeds the verses. Or, “I gotta do the verses
‘cause then the verses are gonna present the hook.” It just depends on
the beat, what the spirit of the music wants, the spirit of the music
might say, “I want the verses first,” and then you give it the verses,
and like ok, now here’s the hook, or, “I want the summary of the song
first…” It just depends on the spirit.
How to Rap: So the music is a big influence on your lyrics then?
Bishop Lamont: Yeah, that’s where the energy is, that’s the template for
whatever you’re going to utter over it.
How to Rap: Have you changed the way you put together lyrics
since you first started?
Bishop Lamont: It’s always an upgrade but primarily the same, besides
stepping away from writing at home in advance. I used to think writing
at home in advance saved time in the studio, and then it switched and
then time wasn’t an issue, because it shouldn’t be when you’re creating
records. Because what you create is supposed to be timeless, so time
shouldn’t be an issue when you create timeless things. So I think that’s
the only thing that changed, my perception and dealing with time and
time frame.
How to Rap: Do you use most of the rhymes you write, or does a
lot never get recorded?
Bishop Lamont: Pretty much everything I write I’ll use, because if
there’s some ideas I don’t like, they get erased, they don’t live, those
foetuses get aborted, those things never see the light of day. So pretty
much everything gets used, either for myself or I write records for
other artists and it’s like, you know, this might work for somebody
else, I’m pretty much done with this chamber, but this might be dope for
somebody else. So pretty much everything gets used, ‘cause everything
that’s gonna be recorded has gotta be fresh, so it’s pointless [if it’s
not], erase that shit.
How to Rap: Do you find that other artists you’ve worked with
write lyrics using the same process as you?
Bishop Lamont: Actually no, I haven’t really saw that many people that
do the weirdo shit that I do, not really at all.
How to Rap: Have you picked up any tips from anyone else?
Bishop Lamont: Definitely Busta Rhymes, Dre always got some magic for
you, not really outside of them… Elzhi, T3, Black Milk, Kardinal Offical,
it’s always some kinda flavors from architects, some dope architects
like that, Stat Quo. There’s a few that’s on the same page with
understanding rapping in key. Because cats be sounding so garbage over
their beats because they don’t realize keys, they don’t understand
tones, you have to approach it the same way you approach an R&B record,
that’s why motherfuckers be shouting over records that they shouldn’t be
shouting over, they be sounding all raspy over shit they shouldn’t sound
raspy over. They have no understanding of keys and tones and adjusting
to compliment the beat. So I think collectively they’ve all shown me
different aspects of that.
How to Rap: So you try to match the pitch of the music with your
voice?
Bishop Lamont: Any smart motherfucker should!
How to Rap: Can you give me any examples of specific tips that
other rappers have given to you?
Bishop Lamont: Err, no, because that’s priceless information!
How to Rap: I tried!
Bishop Lamont: Hey, bless you though, I already gave up so much already,
that’s just the thing, it’s important to give people building blocks,
but no way, I had to confide to get this information, fuck that! Cats
catch me out, we conversating, I’ll make you worthy of the kung-fu
techniques and then I’ll tell you but you gotta get your gi and come
into the dojo, I ain’t doing no kung-fu tricks!
How to Rap: Do producers you work with ever have any input into
your lyrics and suggest things?
Bishop Lamont: They tend to stay out of it, like I have a great
relationship with most producers I work with from the top of the pile
being Dre on down. Dre, he just does some amazing beats and you gotta
come with some amazing shit over it. If he’s not feeling something, he’s
gonna let you know but he’s gonna let you do what you do, he’s not gonna
be over your shoulder and be like one of those kind of producers… the
kind of producer I can’t fucking stand is the kind that is trying to
tell you, “this is how you bust over it,” it’s like, yo, I wasn’t trying
to tell you how to bust over your beats.
So that was always the biggest blessing working with Dre because I came
and didn’t know what to expect, and dude does not fucking bother you, he
just wants the best out of you, ‘cause he’s gonna give it his best. So
pretty much all the producers I work with, I get to take the beats and
then go do my thing to them. Because it’s the same as a rapper trying to
tell a producer, “I want pianos here and I want cows going moo and I
want…” it’s like nah, motherfucker, let him do what’s in his heart and
then you compliment it with what’s in your heart and that’ll get it from
there. So pretty much I just do my thing and bring it back, it’s either
yay or nay.
How to Rap: Does someone like Dre ever give you a starting
point, like an idea for a track, or a theme?
Bishop Lamont: Not unless it’s like really conceptual records that I’m
writing for him, or he has in mind for me and him, other than that he’ll
be like, yo, I got magic beats, you tell me what you think should go
over it and we’ll go from there.
How to Rap: Do you freestyle any of your lyrics and does
freestyling help you write lyrics?
Bishop Lamont: Definitely, that’s the whole thing about like in the
moment with rhythms, like most of my rhythms are freestyled, ‘cause I’ll
have an idea and I’ll just wanna get it out to a beat and that’s where
it starts from, and that’s why a lot of stuff will be mostly unorthodox,
‘cause it’s not constrained or restrained to the pen.
Because you know the way you put words down is pretty much the way
you’re going to pronounce them or enunciate them, whatever the proper
word is. So it’s better to just blank out and come from the spirit and
just spit it how you feel it, be it over the organs, say if it’s organs
or a piano, or to a hi-hat or you flip it out on the snare, and you
compliment that with how you spit it.
So freestyle works always best for starting a record, for starting
verses or finishing verses or in the middle. That’s what made Biggie,
2Pac, or Jay-Z so influential because they would write off the top of
their head, so they were basically synchronizing themselves with the
beat as they went. It’s not some words and lyrics they put down and
tried to structure it to follow the beat.
How to Rap: What’s more important to you, the subject matter or
the flow you’re using?
Bishop Lamont: Subject matter is always… but it’s a marriage, it’s a
two-way street, so both have to be above and beyond, it has to be
perfect.
How to Rap: Do you prefer lyrics that are based in reality, or
more abstract stuff?
Bishop Lamont: I like to combine both because that’s what the world is.
As much as there is black and white, there is a grey area, and all
things should be represented, and that gives it the spice.
How to Rap: Is ghost-writing lyrics for other people different
from writing your own?
Bishop Lamont: Yeah, because you know yourself, so when you’re trying to
write for other people you have to get to know them, or look at their
body of work if you don’t get to speak to them like that and look at
what they’ve done before. Like where would I go from here, if I was Cube
or like Warren G, I looked at all Warren G’s old albums and then when we
approached it in In The Midnight Hour, it’s like, ok, let’s take it to
the next level.
So you just look at all the work they did before, videos, interviews,
and then sit down with them and say, “where are you now and what are you
trying to say.?” And once you get pretty much a good idea of where it’s
trying to go and what their bottom line is, you can put your extras with
it to give them new characteristics, to make it unpredictable to fans
who’re used to hearing them bust one way or talk about these specific
topics, it’s a new twist plus what they used to spit.
How to Rap: So it sounds like it’s more work doing that?
Bishop Lamont: Oh yeah, it is, definitely, but it’s fun because you can
do things with them that you can’t do with yourself, because since you
know yourself you’re not able to impress yourself, but when you write
for other people you can impress them and excite them and they’ll add
new things that you’ve not experienced in your life, thinking about your
life, with what you are, and it’s like fucking two personalities in one,
so it gives it even more definition.
How to Rap: Do you know how you are going to phrase things and
use your voice to deliver the lyrics before you record, do you practice
the delivery or do you let it come out spontaneously?
Bishop Lamont: No, it’s all on the beat, the beat’s gonna tell you
everything, the beat has your script, the beat is your vocal coach, your
beat sets the mood and lets you know if you’re gonna be angry on this
record, if you’re gonna be on some sexy shit, some love shit, some
political shit, whatever the case, comedy shit, the beats gonna tell you
where you are and what you're doing with it.
How to Rap: Do you ever change any of the lyrics during the
recording process?
Bishop Lamont: Yeah, the mic is the last place, after that the only
editing you’re doing is cleaning up, adlibs, and mixing, so you want to
make sure your shit is correct or it’s pointless.
How to Rap: Has the recording changed a lot since you first
started, now that you’re working with Dre and everything?
Bishop Lamont: No, it’s just being able to have more a your disposal as
far as better microphones or keyboards, or engineers that can make you
sound even more super duper deluxe than you already sound, from that
sense, but nothing else, it’s the same.
How to Rap: Which of your songs so far do you think has the best
lyrics?
Bishop Lamont: That’s a hard one because everything is in competition
with each other, a lot of times records will come along and knock other
records off and then other records will compete, that’s where you want a
record to be, you can’t really pick your favourite record, so I can’t
even say. There’s a lot of dope shit and it keeps getting better, so
that’s the only thing that I look at, it’s never a cap on the salary for
where it can go, so I just keep going forward.
How to Rap: What do you think about today’s rappers, compared to
older MCs?
Bishop Lamont: As far as…?
How to Rap: Just whether it was better during the early ‘90s, or
whether it’s improved now…
Bishop Lamont: Well anyone that’s a real hip-hop head will tell you that
it was better in the ‘90s, from the standpoint of the quality, the
originality, the diversity, the dedication, the movement, the risk
taking, the love that was for it.
Compared to the ‘90s MCs to the 2006-2007, or after ’96, ’97, after
Biggie died, it was more of a thing about making money, so that was the
good thing that artists who were making crazy money like… Slick Rick
should be a millionaire, Big Daddy Kane should be a millionaire, Kool
Moe Dee should be a millionaire, but it was just fucked up that the
business wasn’t right like it is now, so that’s the good thing about MCs
now, we can make a shitload of money.
But a shitload of money is not like a balance of what they’re creating
to get that shitload of money. So I think that’s the problem, the same
love and energy and craftsmanship that we saw in the ‘80s and the early
‘90s is not here. Like Smith N Wessun, Black Moon… they should be
millionaires, because of the dope shit they brought forward, Quik should
be a millionaire… he might be… wait, yeah, I think he is… but Compton’s
Most Wanted, they should be millionaires, Above The Law should be
millionaires for the dope shit they did then, Souls Of Mischief should
be millionaires, Ras should be a fucking millionaire, but that’s the
condition of the music.
You have some of the young cats now who didn’t get to rapping until ‘96
and ’97, that’s not saying it’s a bad thing, but they don’t know about
the ‘80s, they don’t know about the early ‘90s, they don’t know about
the Boogie Monsters or Lords Of The Underground or Organized Konfusion,
or when O.C. went solo, they don’t know about Group Home or Gangstarr.
So really their base is totally only on Biggie and ‘Pac, they don’t
remember Fat Joe from Digging In The Crates, they only know Fat Joe from
Lean Back, they don’t know about the Beatnuts, that’s what makes their
shit so one dimensional.
I don’t like to knock anybody, but most of these cats are one
dimensional, two dimensional at most, because they don’t have any more
dimensions to expand with, because they don’t know about Keith Murray or
EPMD, or Redman – they remember Redman, Method Man for their TV show
probably! They don’t remember the Wu-Tang and The Mystery Of Chessboxing,
so, long-ass answer, but that’s the difference.
But it’s starting to shift because there’s always been underground dope
dudes who are now being given the chance, myself included, to be put in
a mainstream situation with the top label to do dope shit, make the big
money, but push dope shit. That’s the difference.
How to Rap: Do you think it’s a bigger problem with the beats or
with the rhymes?
Bishop Lamont: It’s both, because again you have motherfuckers who don’t
know who Pete Rock is, who don’t know who Primo is, they don’t remember
RZA, they only know Dr Dre because Dr Dre stays relevant because he’s
doing shit for Eminem, 50 Cent, this, that and the third.
But beyond Dr Dre, what about DJ Quik, what about Battlecat, what about
DJ Muggs, what about Buckwild, Lord Finesse, so they don’t know. All
they know is Neptunes, all they know is Timbaland, Scott Storch, and so
that’s why everybody’s album sounds the fucking same because they go and
get the same motherfuckers. So then you have motherfuckers who get the
same beats because they’ll go, “aw damn, Scott Storch, he did Lean Back
for Fat Joe, give me a Lean Back,” they want all the beats to sound the
same, so if Fat Joe succeeded with a club record, I’m gonna make a club
record too, and everybody’s got fucking club records.
And so you’ve got everybody driving the same thing, wearing the same
thing, saying the same thing, and it’s fucking boring. It’s like wearing
uniforms in school, nobody got their own individualism, nobody’s got
their own identity, and that’s the problem, on both sides.
How to Rap: What do you think makes a great MC?
Bishop Lamont: Being able to be a great MC! Being dope, knowing that
you’re an MC, being able to freestyle, being able to make fly-ass
records, really having a purpose and a movement and standing for
something. Most of these motherfuckers nowadays don’t stand for
anything, it’s money, it’s rims, it’s bitches… ok, so? Slick Rick had
that, but Slick Rick gave us Hey Young World, Slick Rick gave us
Children’s Story, so it’s like what are you doing? Slick Rick gave you
Mona Lisa. Big Daddy Kane – he had motherfucking guns, minks, jewellery,
but he gave you Ain’t No Half Steppin’, he gave you Raw, on and on and
on, motherfucker stood for something.
Rakim, you know what Rakim stood for, he always gave you balance - at
the same time he had the jewels, he had the finger-rings, he had the
freshest jumpsuits, but at the same time it wasn’t about materialism,
they had a message, most artists now don’t have no fucking message
except they sound like a fucking commercial - “wear Prada, wear Gucci,
you got that Jeep Wrangler?” It’s like y’all motherfuckers is
commercials, y’all niggas is like promoters, you’re not giving anybody
anything beyond name brands, price tags. They should be working at strip
clubs, in the mic booth!
How to Rap: So with the stuff you’re doing are you trying to
bring that old stuff back and the more underground vibe to it?
Bishop Lamont: I’m just doing what Bishop grew up on and where Bishop
wants to go with it, I can’t really speak for everybody else or what I’m
trying to do, it’s just about making fresh music, but you gonna see all
the inspirations and influences of those past eras where I am now. From
level of rhyming and my level of MCing and what I’m trying to contribute
to the game, and just trying to put some paint where it ain’t,
basically, trying to fill in the voids, shit is missing.
How to Rap: What sort of advice would you give to people who are
learning how to rap?
Bishop Lamont: Anything in particular?
How to Rap: Like what to focus on and how to learn…
Bishop Lamont: Let’s see, because that’s so open, you can go anywhere
with that!
I’d say always look at great people in history because no matter what
field they’re in it reflects the same sentiment and that is - whoever
these people were, they’ve mastered their field.
If you want to be someone great and someone who will be remembered, you
have to master that field and that means mastering every aspect and
every style that there is, be it in rap or be it in R&B. You look at Ray
Charles, he took gospel and mixed it with rock and mixed it with R&B and
blues, or you look at Jimi Hendrix and what he did with rock, you take
Bob Marley and what he did with reggae, that’s why we still talk about
Bob Marley. You take 2Pac, he mastered every element, every aspect, from
originally coming from New York and coming to the West coast and putting
that together. Biggie under the same circumstances, of mastering all the
hemispheres of the music.
So don’t think you get one belt and you’re happy with that. Bruce Lee is
Bruce Lee because he mastered all the arts and then took all the arts
and created something new with his own vision, and that’s why he’s the
master and that’s why you still watch Enter The Dragon and Chinese
Connection to this day.
So you have to really be a master of what you create, you can’t half-ass
it, there are no shortcuts to excellence, you have to sacrifice
everything to be the best at this. Jimi Hendrix slept with his guitar,
so you better be sleeping with your motherfucking microphone, your
turntables, your notebook, whatever the fuck it is, go to sleep with the
headphones on listening to records. If you don’t give your all, you’re
not gonna get it all.
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