I arrived at EMI Music in NYC, anticipating my interview with Rapper Raekwon. Upon our introduction he was very kind. He had a small frame, shockingly I thought he would be taller. We sat in a quiet room and I listened while he broke down his road to success, gave advice to aspiring rappers, talked working with Kanye West and what to expect from his upcoming album Shaolin Vs Wu-tang which will debut tomorrow (March 8, 2011).

Reporting by @Lathleen

Photo Credit: Ohaiadeola

Lathleen: Tell us how long you’ve been doing this?

Raekwon: I’ve been doing this since 1986.

Lathleen: Damn! 24 years?

Raekwon: Ain’t that some shit?

Lathleen: What was the most memorable moment of your career?

Raekwon: If you ever been on Staten Island, you know ain’t too much really out there. It’s a blessing being able to make it out of there. That’s my most memorable moment.

Lathleen: What was it like trying to set your career off. What were some of the struggles & challenges you faced.

Raekwon: Stop selling drugs and stop being out there, and not really having nothing to live for, we were just living by the day back then, we didn’t have many choices. So I don’t regret my life or having it be the way it was at that time, but I always wanted to escape that life. I wasn’t proud of what I’ve done.

Lathleen: Survival mode?

Raekwon: Right. Survival Mode.

Lathleen:How did you get the name Raekwon the chef?

Raekwon:I use to be a 5 percenter, I went from a 5 percenter to being a Muslim. I had gotten my name from a couple of friends, it came from back in my early days when I was seeking knowledge that I wasn’t able to get out of school at the time. We wasn’t getting a lot learnt from school at the time, they weren’t paying attention to us. I wanted to search for the higher plane of knowledge and I went to that side of it. The nation has taught me a lot.

Lathleen: What were some inspirations growing up?

Raekwon: Salt-n-Pepa

Lathleen: One of my favorite songs of yours in the song you did with Kanye West and Justin Bieber “Runaway Remix”.How did you link up with Kanye west and what was it like working with him?

Raekwon: Kanye west and Justin Bieber was on Twitter, Kanye was telling Justin like we need to work together, then he said my name, and automatically it became the “talk of the Twitter” at the time. Then I got a call from Kanye saying “Yo Rae I want to do this record with you and Justin Bieber, we got it sizzling right now.” I didn’t hesitate cause I respect shawty (Justin Bieber) as an artist and of course Kanye’s work.

Lathleen: What was it like working with them?

Raekwon: It was live, Justin wasn’t there, he was on the road, but Kanye had people in the studio, we was chilling. We had a lot of fun.

Lathleen: Who would you like to work with that you haven’t?

Raekwon: Eminem, Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, Stevie Wonder.

Lathleen: Now you been doing this a long time! So you were able to witness the evolution of hip hop. What do you think hip hop lacks now?

Raekwon: Back then, Hip Hop wasn’t about all the politics, it was about artistic talent, being able to stamp your creditability on the map, it took a lot to get on. Now its just different because the politics has taken over the business. You may be a great artist, but it may be hard for you to get on because the radio has already been programmed to deal with labels that’s spending money and paying for their artists to be in tact and have these positions. To me it wasn’t like that when we was coming up, if it was hot, they was getting it on the radio, now you have to go through all these different channels, it ain’t so easy.

Lathleen: How do you deal with negativity/haters/rumors?

Raekwon: You got to just swallow it up, don’t allow it to overcome who you are, to me it just comes with the territory of being somebody, if you know you’re somebody and people talking about you, then you have to at least be something to be talked about. People hate sometimes because they don’t understand you.

Lathleen: What do you like least about what you do and being in the industry?

Raekwon: The phoniness, you don’t get a lot of people who mean what they say.

Lathleen: If not the hip hop industry, are you interested in anything else?

Raekwon: I’m interested in the movie industry, I did some films back in the day, a film called Black and White, that was my first time hitting the big screen having fun. Now I’m trying to be a director behind the scenes.

Writer Lathleen and Rapper Raekwon

Lathleen:Let’s talk about Shaolin Vs Wu-Tang, what will separate this album from Built for Cuban linx?

Raekwon: This one is more solid and more back to the wu-tang style of rhyming but at the same time it still gives you the today music sound as well. We got Ghostface on there, Inspector deck, the GZA came through.

Lathleen: Are ya’ll (Wu-tang) still cool?

Raekwon: Of course, we brothers, we’re always going to be cool, but everyone else is just running around doing their thing.

Lathleen:What advice do you have for the younger generation that are trying to get into the game?

Raekwon: Concentrate on your craft, speak up when its time to speak up, don’t let anyone dictate fully what you should do, you should have your own direction on the things you want to do. Surround yourself with a winning team, people that will be honest with you. Get a strong lawyer, come in and don’t sacrifice doing something that’s not going to benefit you and will benefit someone else, come in and try and get the right deals.

Lathleen: Anything else you want hip hop weekly readers to know about you?

Raekwon: Get ready for this album! This album is going to be tough! It’s like looking at a movie, enjoy it and listen to it!

This entry was posted on Monday, March 7th, 2011 at 10:06 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.