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Kurupt Drops Science
Loading ...D: Really?
I used to feel, see that’s why I took that hiatus to get my life right. Had to become a father, become a man, but I feel that at one time, and this goes out to all those who been there, it was like a disease. I’ve been there one time where I felt like if I didn’t have alcohol, I couldn’t do things right.
If I didn’t have a shot, I couldn’t write rhymes. If I didn’t get me a beer, I couldn’t perform correctly. If I didn’t have some alcohol in my system, I can’t let it go. So I know how that is. I’ve had the crutch before. I never done any real drugs like cocaine and heroine. I never done any of that in my life, you know what I’m saying. But I’ve been involved in the different genres of the drug game.
I’ve done pills before, the ecstasy, the mushrooms before, you know Kurupt’s seen it. So yeah I been there before, had the crutch before, just never been to far-fetched, you know. But it’s hard when you get stuck in that world, know what I’m saying? Cause you really believe that, man unless I have this…cruuutch, I cant do it. That’s crazy.
D: That is crazy. You know it happens, and sometime it takes us getting to the point when you realize, its empowering, when you’re like, “Wait a minute, its not the alcohol, its me. Ya know, I can do this. I don’t need that.”
Look at Kurt Cobain. And he didn’t destroy himself cause his life was miserable either. He took the stuff because it’s a mixture between the misery, what he was going through in life, his situation that he was going through, and the drugs and alcohol. It’s a mixture. It takes a team to win a championship and it also takes a team to make a person take his own life. And it also takes a team to take somebody’s life. It takes a team to do anything man, you understand me? Different things, or different people, or different influences to drive you to that place.
D: That’s a brilliant point. Hey Kurupt?
Yesssiiirrrr.
D: I was reading a book the other day, Adam Bradley’s Poetics of Hip Hop, and you had a great quote in there about how a freestyle to written rhyme can be an organic process. It was dope, but what I wanted to ask was in terms of, especially now in California, in terms of the legalization of marijuana. Assemblyman Tom Ammiano proposed some legislation where they wanna decriminalize possession for under an ounce. Medical marijuana is already legalized.
Bout time.
D: It is about time and I’m interested in your thoughts. Obviously there are a lot of effects. One reason they’re doing it is money. Cause Schwarzenegger’s been fucking it up. He just wants to cut back on health care and everything else.
Bout time. If we’d been legalizing marijuana, we wouldn’t be in this deficit man. I mean marijuana is one of the most money bringing in shit in here. You should make it legal. I mean its better than cocaine and some of that other shit. Who knows maybe you’d legalize marijuana and people would do less cocaine. Bottom line is it’s a double-edged sword.
D: Yup, interesting. Always a double-edged sword and that’s a good point. Some people argue too if we legalize it then we can tax it and the governments will get the money and they can try to monitor it to make sure we get quality control. But you said it is a double-edged sword. Are there any things you think? There’s alotta other benefits too. Now there is this crazy drug war our country has really turned into a war on our youth, which is really a war on youth of color. Where now young black males have almost a fifty percent chance of being dead or in jail in their mid-twenties. And in 2005, I think four out of every five people arrested for marijuana were just arrested for possession. So they are going after these small time little kids, filling up their prisons, alotta people are saying its just modern day slavery in a sense cause prisoners are used to make things for corporations. So yeah any other feelings you have on legalizing it, ya know? A pro? A con? Any insights you have on that would be appreciated?
I’m a tell you like this, you take away all the drugs in the world and people are still gonna find a way to make drama. I mean you take away drugs and people will start killing themselves over coffee beans. It doesn’t matter man, it’s the law of being a man.
God gave us one thing, which is actually a curse, but it’s a doubled edged sword. There’s the positivity and the negativity. It’s the freedom of choice. It came from Adam and Eve when they fucked up.
And the next thing ya know he’s saying, “Okay you’re not going to live cool, now you gonna have the freedom of choice.” To the point where you’re gonna fuck up, you understand me? So no matter what bible you read from, the bottom line is were all human and one thing about being human that you’ll never be able to get away from is making mistakes. You’re gonna make a mistake as a human. And a mistake is you may wanna kill this man over this, you may wanna kill this man over that. Mistakes are so many different things.
And the thing is you could take away all the drugs in the world and humans are still gonna find something to feud over. So take your drugs away but that ain’t gonna stop deaths. Okay goes they’ll go find something else to feud over. And if you take away one drug they’re gonna replace it with another. Because you gotta understand the government is getting paid off this here drug game man. I think they’re the ones that brought the drugs in this place. There’s nothing that comes in the United States that they don’t know about man, c’mon. They brought it here first. They gave it to us to sell. So they could make money.
D: I agree with you and think that is one reason it hasn’t been legalized yet. Cause if they legalize it, then yes they can tax it, but then they actually have to use it for the citizens and people cause we know.
You know I’m a politician man. They can’t pull the wool over my eyes. I got x-ray vision, I see through walls. So you know the thing is, you legalize alcohol to keep the natives down and as well make a profit and keep this country rolling man. So you might as well legalize marijuana cause you can’t legalize cocaine.
Now cocaine is a different type of drug. That’s a drug that really puts you away. That’s a drug that makes you wanna go kill everybody or something. Marijuana don’t make you kill people. Marijuana makes you chill. You just gotta be an adult about it and not operate heavy machinery. You just cant be driving and shit.
But if they legalized it, they’d have to put in some restrictions. You can have the dope but you need to smoke at home in closed places. You can’t be out in the streets doing it and also you can’t be in your car doing it. Cant be operating things like that, so if you’re responsible with it, you’re good. But if you’re not, then we gonna take your ass to jail. See there’s nothing wrong with that. Then it’s all about you and your own decisions. See right now you tell a person not to cross the street cause the light is red, what is he gonna do?
D: Cross the motherfucking street.
He’s gonna cross the motherfucking street and those that ain’t…is the rare breed, is what I call ‘em. There’s the minority and then there’s the majority. Okay? And it’s the minority that actually thinks. It’s the majority that just goes through motions just off of what they know. The bottom line is legalize things. It might slow things down. It might make things worse. Who knows? You never know ‘til you try. Bottom line is you have nothing to lose right now. I hear this much though, the majority of weed smokers I know they chill. They calm down, they relax, and they live. Wouldn’t make them go crazy. I don’t know too many people that went crazy off weed.
I do know a lot of them that went psychosis off those other drugs the government placed in our hands like heroine, like cocaine, all of that. There’s nothing we don’t get that the government don’t give us. It’s just a fact.
D: It’s true man. And like you said, the government, they been complicit in drug trades in our country, overseas, and they use it to fight illegal wars. So you’re right the government knows exactly what they are fucking doing. And they control it. And even they its illegal, they like it illegal in some ways cause then they can get dirty money and use it to fight illegal wars.
It was created for them to say whether you can or can not. It wasn’t a term created for them…that we call the government. It was a term that was created for the government to determine whether you can or can not do it. So therefore what is legal and what is illegal. Illegal or legal is determined upon whatever government you’re in. So even though they try to paint the picture, or pull the veil over our eyes, like this is a democracy, its nothing but a dictatorship. And this is in every land there is. A dictatorship. And the bottom line is they need to legalize this so they can get all their money. Hey man, stop beating around the bush. We know you getting the cheese off this anyways. Legalize this man, we didn’t ask for you to legalize cocaine. So keep fighting the cocaine, just legalize this shit so we can get on….I got cataracts!
D: We all got cataracts, Kurupt. We need this. I appreciate all the science you dropping on me, Kurupt. I really do. It was a real pleasure, and is there anything you wanna leave me with. Is there anything you wanted to part with, to make sure I get in the piece and all.
April 20th, Streetlights. On 4/20, I want everybody to go out there, get a bag, and at 4/20 smoke with your man Kurupt. It will be just like I’m there listening to the album with ya.
D: And from a marketing standpoint you know its great too cause you know you might just get a lot of dudes that don’t even know Kurupt, but are like fuck it, I wanna smoke on 4/20 at 4/20 to Kurupt’s new album 4/20. And so you might open their eyes. Hey man I just wanna say peace and thank you for your time. I’m actually writing a book on hip hop for this publishing company. Since I teach in academia it’s geared for like college students because a hip hop class is becoming standard everywhere. It’s a great tool or lens to explore relevant social issues like today in class were talking about the history of sampling and how the legality of sampling has affected the music….oh and by the way I liked how on your new mixtape you had some Maroon 5 and Prince samples. I liked that you sampling some different type shit.
Want to hear something funny?
D: Yeah, of course.
That just means we did our job cause we wanted to capture that sample sound, but we really did that from scratch. Terrence Martin, who’s a huge Prince fan, did that all on his own by creating his owns sounds. It’s not even a sample.
D: Is it really?
He just loves music and Prince’s sound. And you know he’s inspired by it and from it he created music that you would say he sampled Prince. Now that’s deep cause he created that from scratch off of just listening to a Prince record, catching the vibe. And you and I were talking this and that about weed or what could be an influence to you. Music is like that too. It’s like a drug. And he just loves listening to Prince and when he got home this was what he created.
D: Wow.
That’s crazy. Wasn’t even a sample.
D: Wow man that’s ill. Give him the big ups man cause he did his job. He did his job right.
Yesssirrr, yesssiiiirr.
D: And you know some other time when you have more time Id love to ask you about how sampling and the legislation about it has affected your music and what you can do and has it hurt your creativity and whatnot.
Sampling is one of the number one things that is for hip hop man seeing that’s where it all came from man. You understand me, and you just give your respect to whoever you are sampling from. It just shows appreciation for that music right there. That’s why other people who you sample their shit wanna get paid because that’s also appreciation. Make sure they get paid. If they want 100% of that particular record, well you know what, if that record means that much to you, let them eat cause you got the creation from it. It don’t matter what your words are, if the music is a sample of what they created, not live like we did with the Prince thing, but if it’s a sample that you took from them, give them people their money man. I’m not mad at that. Let them get paid.
D: I like that, that’s dope. And Kurupt if you don’t mind, maybe sometime as I’m writing this hip hop textbook you don’t mind me perhaps using some of the things you said in a quote.
Anything you want.
D: Ahh I appreciate that Kurupt. You’re a good dude, I appreciate it. Yo, good luck with the new album. I’m very excited. I’m gonna listen to each streetlight.
Good look, I appreciate that.
D: I’m gonna have my sack and listen to each new streetlight and each new tale.
(laughter) It takes a team.
D: (laughter) It takes a team and that way you’ll be right there with me explaining how the album works.
Yessiiirrr.
D: Well yo thank you so much for giving me all your time and insight. I appreciate it, bro.
My pleasure. Anytime.
D: Alright my man. You take it easy. Peace.
Peace.
Nicholas Conway is an adjunct professor, teaching Hip Hop Music and Culture at Trinity College, Yale University And SUNY-Albany. He is currently authoring a textbook on Hip Hop and freelances for Deft magazine as well as Albany’s The Time Union, UndergroundHipHop.com and also serves as a guest lecturer on hip hop.
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