(Cord Magazine's questions are in blue. Artist responses are in grey.)


What do you do when you’re on downtime?

Read. I’m an avid reader. Everything from psychology books, right down to UFO outer-worldly books.

What’s your vice of choice?

Alcohol. I’m just getting into bourbon right now, if you can believe it. But wine has always been the most easy [drink] for me to rationalize, because it’s supposed to be healthy for you. I’m beginning to evolve and go past that… fortunately or unfortunately.

What’s your favorite city / country / continent to play?

I like Montréal, there’s this place called Club Soda… it’s got this really cool stage and the aura in there is sick! And there was this other place, I can’t remember the name of it, it was the first date I played on The Roots tour in Sweden, the place was like… a temple! When I stepped up in that place, I knew had to rise up and perform better.

What aspects in the world concern you the most?

Ego. Mankind’s ego and arrogance as a mammal… and its inability to understand its place I the universe. If we could get that right, then everything would fall into place.

You take on countless hours of press. What’s the one interview question you hope nobody ever asks you again?

None, man. (pauses) Oh! (smiles) “Why are you so different, why is your hip hop so different?” I think I’m NOT different, I think I’m like everyone else in hip hop, but I’m pushing things. And I would have to know and love hip hop as it was just to do that. So just the idea that when you do a different type of hip hop it becomes alternative, that’s like… really ignorant to me.

What was your favorite Saturday morning cartoon?

Battle Of The Planets! G-Force. But it wasn’t Saturday, it was everyday after school right before Gillian’s Island, on Global. (grins)

What did you want to be when you were growing up, and you can’t say musician?

Probably… (pauses) a lawyer or a journalist… or having a radio station talk show. So I could talk about mad-firey issues all the time on the radio.

If you could trade places with anyone for one day, who would it be, and why?

God… because then I could at least figure out what the fuck’s going on! (laughs) Not to be blasphemous, but I think that I’d want to find out the greatest mystery, I’d just want to know how the hell we got here and what’s the hell is up with the aliens.

A shark and a bear fight. Here are the rules: The water for the shark is just deep enough for him to exist, and there's a small rock in the middle of the water on which the bear may stand. Neither has been trained, and neither has been fed for a few days. It's the baddest of grizzly bears against the baddest of Great White sharks. Who wins?

The grizzly bear. He has foundation to stand on.

If you could ask me one question, what would it be?

Ummm… I’d probably ask you, “Do you believe everything that people you interview say? And how can you tell if someone’s being genuine in an interview, or if they’re feeding you massive bullshit?”

Well… I don’t believe everything I hear. And… I usually start to call bullshit when they start sounding EXACTLY like their press releases or bios, which were clearly written by the record labels.

(laughs) Those are some good notes for me… I’m gonna write that down. (laughs again) Wicked!

Elsewhere

By Rob Anand
Photos : Capitol/EMI
Published : August 23, 2004.