Extracted from the AOR Vault: 2005

What can you take tell us about BlackMilc, and is that the next project you’re working on?

Canibus: Yeah, that’s the next project I’m working on. It’s started, it’s just not completed. It’s a hybrid group. I’m not the front man, I’m just part of the group, which is kinda…I’m excited about being part of a group, as opposed to being the front man. Because of the difference in the music, the type of angle the music is coming from, I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag too soon. Particularly until I have a finished product to put out there. It’s coming out of pretty much what the urban culture has become in America, as far as Rap music, Rock music, alternative, highs and lows of the sound, treble and bass and everything in between. In addition to the part I bring to the table, which is MC’ing from one of the elite artists. I consider myself at least one of the elite in terms of Rap music, you know. Not particularly in sales, moreso in lyrical skill.

Through your history, you’ve pretty much stolen the show anytime you featured on someone else’s track, do you feel like this will provide you that same opportunity?

Canibus: I’ve sorta strayed away from that competitiveness, getting in the booth with another artist in 96, 97, 98, all the way through 99, even up until 2000 when I released my second release, 2000 BC. The competitive nature of Hip Hop does come from B-Boys, B-Boys battling, DJ’s on turntables, and turntablism. B-Boys breakdancing in the street, so forth and so on. Hip Hop sorta took that over with MC’ing, they started vying for attention on the microphone. I sorta strayed away from that only because I’ve matured musically, it’s not so much about being the best on the song anymore, it’s more about saying what I have to say. Bringing around my point of view, which is not really battle orientated at this point. My last release Rip the Jacker was a conceptual album, it dealt pretty much with concepts and the technique, and skill. Not so much anything that was confrontational.

Not confrontational, except for with yourself and your multiple personas.

Canibus: Yeah, they’re always in conflict. Because, musically there’s so many different things I want to do on a record, and at times it all boils down to how hard you can be on a track, and other times it’s not about being hard, it’s about getting your point across. Just being artistic about it. At times I find myself, more now than ever, I sit down to write a rhyme to a track and I’m torn between which direction I want to go. And when there’s nobody to compete against, I find myself competing against myself. That’s where the alter egos come into play. I really am just one person, I’m not psycho here. I don’t suffer from OPC here or anything, or MPD. (Laughs) It’s something I created so it was tangible, so you could tangibly see the differences between the vigor that I have on a track, and then sometimes I be laid back, and then sometimes I’ll be aggressive. Sometimes it’ll be a bit of both. It’s just to add color to the canvas.

Are the Horsemen still together as of now?

Canibus: We recorded a full length album. At the moment, the music is still in limbo. We’ve pretty much gone our own ways. We were doing our own thing anyway, and we kinda got together for the benefit of the project. After the project was done, we split up and went our own ways again. I would like to see the music come out, I would like to see it released, but I really don’t have the final say in that. But I will say that it’s an incredible album and I’m sure it will be released one day, in the near future even. It’s definitely timeless. If it was to come out five years from now, people who still listen to that type of Hip Hop, they won’t be disappointed with the quality of it. The rhymes are top notch. I was rhyming with the other elite, Ras Kass, Killah Priest, Kurupt. Regardless of what they do in the future, they were in top form on that album.

Is there anyone you have planned to sign to Mic Club?

Canibus: There are some artists that we’re looking at signing to Mic Club. At the moment right now, we’re still just looking. Me in particular, I’m like a perfectionist when it comes to the rhymes. Of course anybody who was to be on Mic Club would have to impress me in a way that I feel that they can take the foundation of what I have done, and my career, and expand on it. If you will, me at my very best and then some. That’s what would be impressive to me. I guess any type of artist with that type of caliber of talent, would have to be an artist who can probably fucking do everything. Who can do anything and everything. I haven’t found him yet.

Is it true that you recorded the accapellas for Rip the Jacker and Stoupe added the beats? And is that the usual process for you?

Canibus: That was pretty much out of pocket, but Stoupe pulled it off. Originally, the way the RTJ album happened, we did Mic Club and track number 10 I think it was, Liberal Arts. That track, Stoupe produced and it featured Vinnie Paz from Jedi Mind Tricks. It was an incredible collaboration, but when I listen back to it, I didn’t have time to correct it, but my vocals were a little bit off, because I rhymed directly on top of the beat. My timing on beat is impeccable, and I wasn’t really pleased with the end product because it was off. The vocals were off. It was about a quarter beat or 1/8th slower than the track, and Stoupe and I spoke about it.

Chuck had introduced me to Stoupe originally, and Chuck proposed the idea of maybe having Stoupe produce a full length album. I liked what he did on Liberal Arts, and as long as he was able to synch the rhymes with the tracks that he was going to create, I would be totally cool about it. Stoupe and I sat down, we spoke about it. He took his time with the project and he did it, which is not an easy thing to do. To put my rhymes in-synch with a beat. If I give you an acapella, 9 out of 10 producers will synch it wrong because they can’t keep up with the tempo of my rhyme, they don’t know where my emphasis are on some words and syllables, they just get lost. Stoupe was able to pull it off for eleven tracks, which is very impressive.

Is it safe to assume that there will be future work with Stoupe?

Canibus: I don’t know, who knows. I do think the project we did is a milestone for myself, I’m pleased with the end result. I’m sure with his future endeavors, he’ll always remember this project. I guess if our paths cross again, I’m sure we’ll be able to do something even more explosive than what we did this time.

Considering you just recorded the accapellas and it was out of your hands, was there any fear of bootlegging? Was that a big problem or concern, to basically release your accapellas to the free world?

Canibus: I want to say that I’ve never been a…I might have said it in a rhyme or two, maybe even three, maybe a half a dozen rhymes, I might have said something to the effect that I hate bootleggers, or that I’ll break their legs, fuck a bootlegger, so on. But really in all truth, I’m pretty much indifferent about bootlegging music, particularly because as an independent artist, if you take it back to the days before my record deal, the days before I had a chance to come out and put my poetry for the world. I would have loved to have listeners be able to download or burn my music. 

The Internet wasn’t a device with the tools people have today to burn and copy music. But back then, I would have loved to have the Internet as a promotional tool. Now knowing between 40,000-70,000 downloads of various parts of Rip the Jacker were made, between the release and right now, I actually feel good about that. I think that’s a good thing. I think it’s good that someone wants the music bad enough to go burn it, regardless of whether or not it was done illegally, or if it was burned, or whatever. Who cares. The bottom line is the music gets out there, people hear it and they enjoy it.

When did the whole Rip the Jacker alias surface in your mind?

Canibus: I was toying with the idea right around 2000. After 2000 BC, I wanted to make an album that wasn’t as aggressive. I didn’t know how to go about it. At the beginning of C: True Hollywood Stories, I had a guy speaking and he pretty much separated the personalities. After that, I was able to release Mic Club which is Canibus, and RTJ which is Rip the Jacker. So I was able to separate the aliases, and show how each alias is specific to the music that they produce. It was a necessary thing to start the trilogy off with CTHS.

Did you have the trilogy planned before CTHS, or did it just work out that way?

Canibus: Well I had recorded some material and I was going to do a CTHS part 2, and I kinda scratched that idea. I wanted to make an album that was disconnected from CTHS in music quality, so that’s how The Curriculum came about. And of course I was going to do something that was even more eccentric than The Curriculum, and that was RTJ. So yes I did plan to have follow-up albums, but I didn’t know it was going to be a trilogy, I didn’t know if it was going to be two albums, three, maybe four. I still have other material I didn’t place on any of the albums. It just kinda worked itself out. That’s how my career has been, you know, it works itself out.

Did you know that Rip the Jacker debuted at #11 on the Billboard Indy Charts?

Canibus: Yeah, I found that out. I was actually out in the field the week that album was released. You know I’m currently in the army. I was out in the field the time the album was released, so I wasn’t able to pay attention to what was going on. The week after, the Soundscans came out and I got wind of the information that it was 11 on the Independent chart, and it showed up on the Billboard 200 somewhere. I was pleased with that. Particularly because I know RTJ goes over the heads of a lot of people. Mainstream Hip Hop probably wouldn’t be able to grasp the concepts on RTJ. It is ahead of its time, both in content and even in vibe. Stoupe’s production is like symphonic. I was aware that it would probably go over people’s heads, but I was pleased that there are people out there who are fiening for that type of Hip Hop.

After listening to the album myself, I went out and I got it the week after it was released, I didn’t get a chance to go to the store. I went to Best Buy and I picked it up. That was the first time I got a chance to look at the finished product, the artwork and everything. Because of where I was, I was out there for a month, and I was unable to get a draft copy. The first time I had the draft copy was in the store. I got a chance to look at it, look through the artwork, how it was placed. Look through the tracklisting, just the way I went over to the art department at Koch to get it done. I was pleased with it. I feel like when listening to it, it takes me back to 89 or 90, when your favorite artist would come out and you would get their music. They had something different to bring to the table, they didn’t all sound the same.

Does it bother you that some people considered Can-I-Bus to be a disappointment when it went gold without any major guest appearances or songs to appeal to the masses?

Canibus: In 98 or 99, yeah it bothered me. Even for 2000 BC, it was like a thorn in my thigh. Now I just take it in stride, because I realize that all artists go through this. All artists, any type of entertainer or athlete, they have their peak moments and they have the low. It’s like a wave. Then you got your alright, your projects that come out, they might not sell very well but they’re highly respected. You gotta kinda take the sugar with the salt. At this point in my career, I’m mature enough to understand, it’s not really about the gloss of it. It’s more about the history of the work, the historical value of it. I’m sure the album will remain, just like 2000 BC and the Curriculum, and RTJ. I’m sure it will remain in the collections of the Hip Hop…I call them the roots of Hip Hop. The fans that go out there and cop music for the value of the lyrics involved. I’m sure it will remain. As long as I meet that quota and the company that puts the project out gets their profit, I can’t complain.

As you mentioned, you were on active duty and you just got back. With songs like “Draft Me” you obviously had it in your mind, but when did you actually decide to go out and join the army?

Canibus: First of all I think it’s important to know that 9/11 was a serious situation. Now, people have moved onto other catastrophes and there have been so many other atrocities in the world that it takes attention away from the day that the towers fell. I used to live across the street, across the water from the Towers in Jersey City, right across the Hudson. I even remember doing a photo shoot for Spin, taking a photo hanging out of a helicopter, off the highway in front of the Towers. To just know that they were gone is something that I’ll never forget. The song “Draft Me” wasn’t meant to be a prelude to what I was going to do. If you even listen to the song, the majority of the people on the song…I took the third verse and the rest of the group, C-4, they took the first and second. It was pretty much something, we were in the studio, it had happened right around the time the album was made. In the studio we were talking about the situation, what was going on.

Those guys, they wanted to vent some of their feelings, they put their feelings on the record. I pretty much just said, ‘damn man, is armageddon coming, are we going to war, then draft me.’ It was more like a statement, you can take it one way or another. I don’t really take it as seriously as other people did at the time. It’s not a joke. You can say ‘draft me’, but to actually get in and join the armed forces, that’s not a joke. Going through basic training, it wasn’t easy. The training was vigorous, it was a tough time, but you gotta finish what you’ve started. There’s other songs I did, like some on The Curriculum, even a couple of lines on RTJ that are more explicit about the route that I took with the armed forces. “Draft Me’ if anything, was more like fiction.

What really made your decision the army though, as opposed to something out of a song?

Canibus: Back in 88, 87-88, a cousin of mine had joined the military. He got stationed in Korea. He used to send us boxes of sweatsuits, clothes and all the fancy brand names that were really expensive in the states here at the time. He used to send them back and we didn’t know they were coming from sweatshops over there. My brother and I used to get the boxes and we used to be so excited. I remember him coming back, picking me up and we’d go to the club. I was young and totally enthralled with Hip Hop, I was a total fan. I remember them taking me to the opening of a club Strawberries, which is Luke from 2 Live Crew’s club. At the time they were a big group. I remember hanging out with my cousin, he had done his little stint in the military, he just made an impression on me. That was when I was real young. He had so many stories and it sounded like something I wanted to do. This was prior to me picking up a pen and pad and writing rhymes. Then I started to get really interested in being an artist and coming out with music.

After a couple of mixtapes that led up to the first album, all of my ambitions, including some college after high school, took a backseat. I started doing music 24/7. I wanted an opportunity to go back to some of the things I left off with, like enrolling in school, continue on with some of my aspirations that have nothing to do with music. The army is a good place to implement those things. They have a variety a programs you can do to enhance not only your education, but just a worldly experience. In addition to that, you can get all of those benefits and you get a chance to help with the immediate needs of the country, which is freedom. For all the people who disagree with the doctrine of the armed forces, I’m no spokesman and don’t claim to be. I’m in no position to debate what is right or wrong with any of the decisions that come down from high up, but anyone who disagrees with freedom go to another country. Any country, pick it. Close your eyes and pick a country off the map. Go there and see if you don’t miss America. I’m getting in where I fit in and trying to play my part.

Has joining the army in any way affected how you rhyme or your perspective of Hip Hop?

Canibus: I don’t think so. I think my experiences have affected how I rhyme. The army is an experience, but I haven’t really been here long enough. It’s not like I walk into a room and snap to attention when I see people, when I’m in civilian mode. Experiences make the man. Any differences in my rhyme from 98 or pre-98, it’s only experiences that they’re hearing. They’re hearing the differences in the man. Of course I could go back to that, but why would I want to do that. Why would I want to go back to the way I was rhyming in 97 when this is 2003. That just seems backwards to me.

Have you found that any people you trained with were fans of you or recognized your music?

Canibus: I’m sure. Every now and then somebody would like ‘yo man, didn’t you used to do this.’ I tried to downplay it as much as I could. It’s two different worlds. When I’m here in the army I’ve gotta put my game face on. When I go downtown and I’m just hanging out, then it’s cool to be Canibus I guess. For the most part, I’m Germaine. Everything that I’ve done, all the work I’ve done wouldn’t be possible without the experiences as Germaine. My love of Hip Hop is fueled by Germaine’s eagerness to go out there and breakdance, going to clubs and watching DJ’s battle it out. Going to Hip Hop shows and being inspired to do my thing. I can’t ever totally lose track of what I was before. My first album came out and people recognize me as Canibus, I can’t forget what I was before that. What I’ve done is give myself an opportunity to go back to that.

Joining the military, I would have to assume you have some political party you align yourself with?

Canibus: Of course I have political views, but I don’t have a soap box to stand on. I don’t think that any one party or political view is right, the greatness about this country is we have so many different people, so many different cultures, so many different races and points of views, that’s what makes it great. The melting pot, the chemistry of everyone involved. It creates a forum for everyone to be satisfied in the end. That’s pretty much for the people who pass the bills, the Congressman, the people who elect them, the House and the Senate. That’s the way the country was founded, on those principles. We’re still here, so we must be doing something right. I think together, my views included, the end result will be a positive one.

If you want to gout there and play your part, which is all anyone can ask you to do, playing your part to better the country. The country is symbolic of your community or wherever you live, whatever your choice of occupation, whatever you do. If you play your part and try to add to it, then you’re doing something good. You’re doing something that will affect the future. I’m older, I’m getting ready to settle down, get a ranch, have some kids. My views are just like any other young American. You can be anything or be anybody you want to be, that’s something I’m grateful for. I think my music displays that.

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