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World, Meet Boy: Fashawn Talks Hip Hop
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Where does this positivity, from a difficult beginning, come from?
From wanting to get out, the passion of wanting to get out of that situation and then the joy of actually getting out. Feeling like wow this is amazing, I’m in Paris, I’m in Germany, I’m everywhere I dreamt about going.
And just knowing what it is like to have nothing and be helped. It can really take you a long way just reaching a hand out to somebody. And I believe that the energies you put out into the world that’s what is going to come right back to you. So if you pump nothing but positive energy out, positive thoughts and ideas, then ultimately that’s what is going to come back to you and that’s what is going to resonate through the speakers.
Another comparison I’ll make to Illmatic is the way the lyrics are reflected in the music itself. Did this come together with Exile as a combined project?
(When) it started he would just send me beats via email, but then we got a chance to work together.
I told him, “Yo, I want the album to just flow as one.” And he totally got what I said. We only had a week to work together but man the chemistry was incredible.
I wanted it to be like a movie, you know because the music is just as important as the lyrics, I don’t think you can have one without the other on a specific album.
Some of the music just paints pictures in my mind. That’s why I grabbed a pen and paint pictures for y’all.
You can feel the setting, you can feel Fresno, you can feel L.A. you can see it, smell it and taste it through the music.
Can we get some insight into the sad story you tell on the track “When She Calls?”
That was actually a friend of mine.
We’ll leave that alone…
Nah, it could help somebody.
You know how there are always songs, girl’s songs, about dudes doing them wrong and they always crying. So I wanted to make a record coming from the male perspective as far as love.
I guess the perception of males is that we don’t know how to love. Especially American men, that we don’t know how to love our women and be faithful to them. I wanted to show a side, a sensitive side to us.
It was inspired by my friend, he actually passed away, he killed himself over some bitch who cheated on him. They were together since middle school, forever, he thought he was going to marry this girl. One day it all changed and it changed his whole life.
That was the hardest song to write on the album. That was actually the last song I recorded. I was like, “I’m just going too far.”
I think that’s one thing about the album, its very brave, very honest. It also has these messages of personal growth and inspiration. What role do you think music has in creating social change?
I think music is the instrument that moves people.
Tell me another situation where there is one man on the mic telling people to move their hands side to side harmoniously and in unity. Tell me another situation where you see that.
Music does that, and specifically Hip Hop. We command that unity. I think politicians should take note on that.
The message gets distorted (in politics).
What has life been like making a living from music?
I love it. I am a pure B-Boy. I love murdering microphones, hopping on other rappers songs, and bodying their songs, or at least try to.
It’s just the icing on the cake that I get paid to do it. Even if I wasn’t being paid to do it, if it wasn’t my career, I’d still do it.
What do we need to be looking out for from you and from people you are associated with?
Definitely look for “Four Track Mind,” from Exile and in late spring look out for the Exile, Radio remix project. We got MC’s on it, different remixes. It’s ridiculous, truly phenomenal.
Look out for my new mixtape, it’s an ode to Illmatic. It’s basically Illmatic revised on some West Coast shit, same beats but a fresh voice and a fresh perspective – me.
We going on a second album, I’m going to get in the studio. I already have some ideas I am brainstorming. I think I am going to call it “The Ecology.”
Check out this new video for Samsonite Man, me and Blu just shot that.
Finally, what do you think Hip Hop needs more of?
I think it needs more bravery, more artists with balls who are not afraid to say what they really feel.
That’s the only way it will grow and evolve.
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Simon is a regular contributor to Deft Magazine and active in the hip hop community in Paris. He earned his Bachelors of Law and Arts from New Zealand's University of Otago, Simon was also a DJ on Radio One Dunedin, in Otago, New Zealand.
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