In the second part of my interview with Steve Rifkind, the SRC founder recounts the time when he signed the Wu Tang Clan.

He was with E. Swift (Tha Alkaholiks) when RZA brought “Protect Your Neck” for them to hear.

An hour later, RZA brings the whole clan to the spot and they perform “Protect Your Neck”. While they are performing, a random intern (who I’ll call the phantom intern) runs into the room saying “that’s that shit!”. Steve Rifkind only saw that intern on that day and never again. But that guy ultimately influenced Rifkind’s decision to sign the Wu.

We speak about his relationship with Diddy. He revealed that Rifkind introduced Diddy to Clive Davis’ bosses

I also ask Steve about his first run-in with Tupac Shakur. Steve Rifkind revealed that Pac stayed at his house in L.A. because Steve’s label were doing the promotion for Interscope at the time (before Death Row). Steve and Tupac used to smoke together at the office.

And finally Steve tells me the time when he broke his nose playing basketball and while on the way to the hospital, he was told to listen to 3 Akon records, which he loved and decided he had to sign him.

Steve Rifkind Interview Part 2

PART 1 - STEVE RIFKIND TRIED TO SIGN JAY-Z, THROW CHAIR OUT OF WINDOW OVER WU TANG RECORD, HANDCUFFED OUT OF BUILDING.

Tags: Akon, Biggie, Bloody Nose, Clive Davis, Diddy, Jay-Z, Tupac

I caught up with Steve Rifkind during his stay in London. It was a great honour for me to sit down and interview someone who has done alot for Hip Hop music.

In this first part of the interview, I get Steve to break down the Duck Seazon lyrics where RZA says “Stev Rifkind must be sniffin”.

We then get onto speaking about Steve’s first encounters with artists.

He explains how Havoc (Mobb Deep) lit up a blunt during their firs meeting and caused a fire alarm to go off.

I ask him to talk about the first time he met Melanie Fiona and how he thought her manager was “breathtakingly beautiful” and at the time he had just turned single!

The Loud & SRC founder also describes a 16 year old Dame Dash as a “cocky motherfucker” who came into Steve’s office shouting and screaming with his cousin. Rifkind once thought Roc-A-Fella would be his competition.

Steve Rifkind tried revealed he tried to sign Jay-Z but was was frustrated that the Chairman of BMG wouldn’t sign Jigga that he threw everything off the Chairman’s desk.

There’s also a great story about Steve Rifkind throwing a chair threw a window over a Wu Tang record and being led out of the building in handcuffs.

Part 2 coming tomorrow. It includes stories about Akon, Tupac and did the Wu Tang Clan set up Steve by placing a Phantom intern at the label?

Tags: dame dash, Handcuffed, Interview, Jay-Z, Music, Steve Rifkind, Wu Tang Clan

I caught up with Statik Selektah in London yesterday. We spoke on his new album and how long the whole process takes to put together. I asked him about the “Thrill Is Gone” track with Styles P and Talib Kweli. Statik reveals that Kanye almost took the joint for the 808’s album.

I ask Statik about “All In A Day’s Work 2″. He tells me they have picked the beats and almost started to record it in Oslo a few days ago. But they want to put it out after Saigon sorts out his situation with Atlantic Records. Interestingly Statik says that Sai’s debut album should be released in “two or three months”. As of this moment Sai is still signed with Atlantic Records but he the paperwork for his freedom is nearly done.

Shouts to Statik Selektah, he’s a real good dude.

Also thanks to Spin Doctor & DJ Snips.

Statik Selektah Interview With The Hip Hop Chronicle UK

Tags: Hip-Hop, Interview, Kanye, Music, Oslo, Rap, Statik Selektah, Styles P, Talib Kweli

Late last year I caught up with upcoming UK Hip Hop artist Chima Anya.

Chima is actually a doctor. But he’s also a dope rapper. I think Hip Hop has it’s own superhero. Saving lives by day and saving rap by night.

In this interview he speaks to me about bringing back Soul into Hip Hop and starting a new movement called “Hip Hop”!

He gives his thought’s on why the UK Hip Hop scene isn’t popping as it should.

I ask him why he would want to rap considering he’s a doctor.

Chima tells me why blogs are “shit” and why they have become like labels.

He’s currently working on his album and a new mixtape called “Your Blog Is Shit”

He also blesses the site with a nice freestyle.

Chima Anya Interview & Freestyle

Related

Chima Anya - A Star Is Born ft Jake Burrell (UK Accoustic Version)

Tags: Blogs, Chima Anya, Hip-Hop, Interview, mixtape, Music, Rap, Star Is Born, Vlogs

Earlier today I caught up with Sha Stimuli (for his first UK video interview) to speak on his album “My Soul To Keep”. He speaks on his rich history into Hip Hop and how it has impacted his music. He also tells me why rap makes him “sick”.

Sha reveals he is working on a new street album entitled “Unsung”. He should be releasing a Valentine’s project this year.

Tags: Big Daddy Kane, Hip-Hop, Interview, J.D, Jay-Z, Juice Crew, Music, Rap, Sha Stimuli, Video, Virgin

Recently I had the honour of interviewing Wyclef Jean. A Hip Hop artist, a great songwriter, musician and humanitarian. 

Wyclef is a role model to youngsters and adults alike. His constant efforts to engage the youth and spread the word of non-violence and peace with his infectious and positive personality has seen him achieve over a million followers on twitter.

As I said to ‘Clef, The Score was a defining moment for Hip Hop, it broke racial barriers and it was on constant play in my household. I remember when “Fug-ee-la” was being premiered on a show called “Flava” (which used to come on in the early hours of the morning) and because I had school in the morning, I put in a VHS and put the video on timer and watched it before going to school the next morning.

We Used To Be Number 10″  lol

Needless to say, I was super exicted to do the interview. It took place the hallway on a office building. Dictatorphone in hand, connected to my Blackberry (unfortunately Blackberry don’t have a recording facility on their phone’s). The audio wasnt clear enough to post up so I wrote up extracts of the 35 minute conversation.

Lastly I have to give respect to Wyclef because he called me. When have you heard of a artist of the stature ringing a journo/blogger? That’s respect!

“I’m 37 years old and this is no time to back down”

Sumit: With your new mixtape, you’ve had the streets and interwebs buzzing. I’ve heard you talk about going back to your Hip Hop roots but I want to know, why now?

Wyclef: It was important to get to a certain pinnacle where I wanted to go to, to show people that even though we come from Haiti, we come from the heart and was raised in the PJ’s (projects). People are looking at me like an iconic figure. They are like ‘ok, that’s that guy who wrote Shakira’s “Hips Don’t Lie”, the guy that wrote the same record with Michael Jackson, that’s that guy “Gone Till November”, that’s the “911″ guy, that’s the Carlos Santana guy (”Maria Maria”). It is important before going into my next project and the last one I did, killed them in the States called “A Sweetest Girl”, its important before going on to the next Wyclef Jean album that people understand that I did not forget my tone and my tone meaning, if it wasn’t for Hip Hop, I wouldn’t be where I was at. Keep in mind right, when people usually decide to go back and do a Hip Hop tape, that shit be wack (laughs) and you’d be like ‘oh man this person shouldn’t even come back because they rhyming about scooby doo but with me you gotta understand like I say on my joint “I’m from the battle rap era”. No matter how nice you are in battle rapping you’re not gonna make money, you gotta make sure you got them songs and the instruments cracking. But it was important before going on to the next Wyclef Jean project for kids that are 13,14,15 listening to Drake or Lil Wayne, to them Toussaint Saint Jean is a brand new character, so I find life in the mixtape circuit.

Sumit: On “Streets Pronounce Me Dead” you sound a little annoyed and at the same time defiant. One lyric “last time I remember him was gone to November.

Wyclef: Alright, alright you were paying attention (laughs)

Sumit: “…He say I don’t spit no more, all I do is sing songs. Last time he felt me was when I rhymed with Big Pun” Now going back to what you just said about making yourself relevant for kids today, does it annoy you that people don’t give you more credit?

Wyclef: No…not at all. Because what happened is Hip Hop got amnesia and you got to remind them every three weeks. There some people that feel like you are so big on a pedestal. Like I got the mansion. But like if I got the mansion and I got the yacht and I got all of that, why should I really care about what people say to you? You see the thing about Hip Hop and Rap culture is that it teaches you. You could never back down, once you back down, it can be taken as a sign of weakness. I’m 37 years old, this is not the time to be backing down, if you say something, I’m going to address it. So the song “The Streets Pronounce Me Dead” was basically creating my own funeral through Hip Hop. Its like Nas saying Hip Hop is dead, I just said the Streets pronounce me dead. Sometimes we’d be saying Hip Hop is dead and Hip Hop is not dead, its just changed in different forms.

“Whether you’re a shotta, a crip or a blood, you can gang for whatever you feel but at the end of the day the Warrior movement welcomes you”

Sumit: The Warrior movement on twitter is kinda heavy right now. Tell me about that, how did it start and what you hope to achieve?

Wyclef: Shout out to Samantha, she’s a Warrior and she made this interview happen. We want people to understand how the world is connecting. On my song “Warrior’s Anthem” i said “I’d rather be online selling music to my Warriors because Ive seen killers kill killers, robbing drug dealers”. That’s not the lifestyle I intend for anybody. The Warrior movement started when I left Haiti, I left Haiti when I was 10 and I came to America. When I was 18 I started the Fugees and the Fugees is short for Refugee. When I was 30 I went back to Haiti because the gang violence has escalated on a whole other level, I’m sure you’ve probably seen some of it in the UK. When it comes to Haiti, Haiti is no joke. I am highly respected by everyone out there and I felt it was only right to get on a plane and talk to all the gangs out there. So the whole thing is, as a Warrior you never forget you’re roots and its not about the money. Money cant issue you respect as a Warrior.

The whole idea as a Warrior is you cant take nothing with you. So then when I came back to America, keep in mind that there are gangs on all part of the globe and what we are saying is, what ever gang you are in, whether you’re a shotta, a crip or a blood, you can gang for whatever you feel but at the end of the day the Warrior movement welcomes you. I’m not gonna criticise what you do but what I’m gonna do is tell you is violence is not the way. So if you follow the movement and community, we can create alternatives for you. It’s not about ‘ok man, Wyclef wanna keep getting rich, keep getting wealthy’, its about social entrepreneurship and that’s not gonna happen unless we take the music back in our hands and that’s why Ive done this mixtape so I can start communicating with the thugs and the thugettes.

“There’s alot of phony people acting like they are running stuff, they ain’t running shit because they cant go to any hood and be comfortable” 

So the definition of a Warrior is somebody who rises to the occasion. You know how many times people counted me out of the game? Dudes by like ‘aight man, Clef ain’t in the game no more’ and I’ll come back and slap them in the face with a Shakira record. I rise to the occasion, I am a Warrior because I come from the hut, I went to the projects to the mansion. And just so people get it straight, its not just about you’re from the hood, that’s not what being a Warrior is about. Someone can be at work right now trying to get a job position and is shitted on by everybody else and they rise to the occasion and they get that position, they define it. They are Warriors. When we say “Warrior Music”, we live and breath that.

Sumit: What does it take to be a leader?

Wyclef: To be a leader you have to experience everything so you can talk about it. Like I was shot at 14 years old and knew I didn’t want to be shot again. I was part of a street movement when I was 16 years old. I know what it feels like to go into a grocery store and tell the man “yo listen, give me everything behind the counter”. My mother told me you can take that negative energy and turn it into a positive and get people to follow you. To be a leader, you gotta walk the walk but you got to talk what you walk. At the end of the day, Wyclef is respected as a person before a artist. Dudes be like “yo I respect that dude”. You cant be a leader if you don’t respect people. There’s alot of phony people acting like they are running stuff, they ain’t running shit because they cant go to any hood and be comfortable despite what they have.

Sumit: But why does Hip Hop have such a lack of leaders. We have some but not enough. You said it yourself that Hip Hop teaches us so why do we have a lack of teachers?

Wyclef: Because people are more worried about making money and generate millions of dollars as opposed to worry about the youth, that’s the bottom line to it. All they worry about is how I can make more money, how can I fuck more bitches and the thing is…I’m not telling you I don’t make alot of money and I never told you that I don’t fuck bitches but the reality of it is, you gotta live for something. Can you imagine if Bob Marley didn’t leave that information for us? If Marcus Garvey didn’t leave that information for us? We gotta rise to the occasion and its about time. 

“Keep in mind, no matter how bad you think you have got it, somebody else got it worse”

Sumit: But as a leader, as an artist who has been in the game so long, have you ever doubted yourself, your leadership skills and what do to overcome that?

Wyclef: I’ve been in the game since I was 14, 15 years old and you gotta understand, as a boxer Muhammad Ali will always be Muhammad Ali but there was times when he questioned like “damn am I gonna knock this guy out? But damn I’m still Ali, I’m gonna do it”.

I want your readers to know this, if there is a man or a woman that at times they don’t doubt themselves then they are lying because doubting is a natural instinct.

Keep in mind, no matter how bad you think you have got it, somebody else got it worse.

I’m reading the paper and the guy goes “man Wyclef Jean is washed up, he’ll never come back again in trillion years, he’s done. That shit was wack, that shit was wack”. Now, when he says that right, all I do is close my eyes and I imagine that small village that I was in, in a hut and I see myself riding to school on a donkey and then I remember what a man told me. He’s like “where are you going?” and I said “I’m going to America”. He said, “there’s no way in hell you’ll ever get to America, that will never happen”. And I always refer to that whenever people criticise me. I go back to that same old man when I was riding that donkey.

Sumit: Now I didn’t want to talk about this and I know you have spoken about this a million times but the Fugees….

LINE GOES DEAD

Sumit standing in an office building hallway thinking “yo was Clef really mad I asked about the Fugees???  While I stand there figuring out whether it was the reception or was Clef annoyed, the phone rings again and Wyclef’s number appears on the screen…

Wyclef: (laughing) This interview was going well soon as you mentioned the Fugees and the shit hung up (still laughing)

Sumit: I thought “shit Wyclef hung up on me for talking about the Fugees, what the hell? I grew up on you guys”

Wyclef laughs

Sumit: Nah but for real, I wasn’t sure whether to bring it up because its been done to death…

Wyclef: No no no its cool, we can talk about it because when a fan is talking about it, its important because for a fan they are still trying to figure out what the hell went wrong so I’m hoping I can tell you something I haven’t told anyone else.

Sumit: But I mean do you guys still talk?

Wyclef: I haven’t spoken to Lauryn, last time I spoke to her was Dave Chappelle’s show (Block Party) and I didn’t speak to her because I feel she needs some time, she needed some time to find herself. She’s basically gotta find herself and you know what? This is what I am hoping this whole Warriors movement will spark the energy because I know she loves Hip Hop and its been a while since I didn’t Hip Hop so I’m hoping that when they hear this EP they’ll be like “yo man we need that shit, lets start having fun again”.

Then I became a fan and spoke to ‘Clef about a few things including one of my favourite Hip Hop skits of all time, the skit on The Score before Fu-gee-la (the one in the Chinese resturant).

Wyclef’s latest EP Toussaint Saint Jean is available on iTunes. Buy From iTunes 

Follow Wyclef on Twitter

Thanks to Samantha!

Tags: Fugees, Haiti, Hip-Hop, Interview, Itunes, Music, News, Rap, Toussaint Saint Jean, UK, Wyclef, Wyclef Jean Interview, Youth

Hip Hop is no longer a culture, its now a religion. Millions across the global listen to Hip Hop music every single day. The music has inspired us from the the way we talk to the way we dress.

Nokia Music and The Hip Hop Chronicle UK would like to use this opportunity to get involved with the Hip Hop community to compile a list of these Hip Hop albums and to feature them on the Nokia Music Store.

One lucky reader will win 50 music tracks from the Nokia Music store.

The albums dont have to be in any particular order.

We just want to know….

WHAT ARE YOUR TOP THREE HIP HOP ALBUMS OF ALL TIME???

Leave you’re answers in the comment box below.

http://www.comeswithmusic.com/ 

Things to note:

The Nokia Music Store is only available in 21 countries and so winners will need to be living in one of these countries.

Tags: albums, Biggie Smalls, Eminem, Hip-Hop, Ice Cube, Jay-Z, KRS-One, LL Cool J, Low End Theory, Music, Music Store, Nokia, Paid In Full, Public Enemy, Rakim, Rap, Snoop Dogg, Tribe Called Quest, Tupac

Upcoming Hip Hop artist and South London native, Skandal speaks to The Hip Hop Chronicle UK about his new mixtape with DJ MK entitled “Hunger Pains”. He speaks on where he sees himself fitting into the Hip Hop scene. He also explains his future plans to target America and work on further mixtapes with DJ MK, DJ Sarah Love, DJ Shortee Blitz and DJ 279.

The freestyle he blessed me with was dope!

He’s got the launch party for the mixtape at King Apparrel in Covent Garden on Thursday evening. 

Keep your eye on Skandal.

Tags: America, DJ MK, Hip-Hop, Interview, London, Music, Rap, Skandal, UK, Video