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BIOGRAPHY | BEEFS | INTERVIEWS | ARTICLES
THE HORSEMEN | CLOAK 'N DAGGA
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Certified computer geek and hip-hop's hottest new sensation, Canibus, is on a mission: He wants to turn the rap community on to the powers of the World Wide Web. "It's impacted me totally", Canibus says of his own experience on the Internet. "I think it's almost who I am. Getting on the Internet gives me the ability to go anywhere, to research anything." A tech-head kid who had the first Atari on the block, Canibus grew up into a beatboxing, breakdancing recording artist who doesn't shy from controversy: His rivalry with LL Cool J was one of the best lyrical "battle royales" to entertain the rap community in recent months. Plus, he's a forward-thinking artist who's eager to use the Internet as a marketing tool to reach his fans. "The Internet eliminates the middleman between me and my audience," he says. Though much of his attention is consumed with promoting the value of the Web among his peers, Canibus also is focused on taking the music of hip-hop to a new level, coining the hybrid genre "rip-rock" and striving to produce "classic" urban music that stands the test of time.
I know that you love computers, and I want to know when that all started.
I have to say that a lot of my inspiration comes from growing up as a member of Generation X. I was actually the first kid on my block to have an Atari 2600. My mother purchased one from the guy she was working for at the time. He worked with Atari, he had a prototype of it. I had it six months before it came out. So I had Atari before anyone knew what Atari was, playing Tank Combat. It's always been that way for me. I've always been interested in technology--anything that has to do with the future, especially computers.
So you're very familiar with the Internet. A lot of artists we speak to don't spend much time with computers.
You know, it's weird because I've been on the Net since I graduated from high school in 1992. I went to work for AT&T my first year, and the second year, I went to the U.S. Department Of Justice and worked as a data analyst in the Economic Litigation Division. But I wasn't on the Net for leisure, it was mainly for occupation. After I got my own laptop I started to get into it for recreation. Since '92, it's totally changed. It's really user-friendly now. So now to me it's like a world, an entire separate world. It's separate from the world we live in. It's like a URL world; everything is computer-generated, but it's real at the same time. It's just incredible to me. It really is, man. If you turn on the TV and look at Leave it To Beaver, Dennis The Menace, when people used to watch those things for recreation, nobody would ever dream that we could all log on and all talk to each other through a machine. So this is actually the future.
So is it safe to say that computer technology has had an impact on you and your career?
It's impacted me totally. I think that it's almost who I am. Getting on the Internet gives me the ability to go anywhere, research anything. Through that window I can go anywhere. I can be in my house, my studio apartment--I can be there all day--and travel all around the world in a day. Physically, it would be hard to do that.
So technology doesn't intimidate you?
It's regular to me. It's where I live. I just bought a Palm Pilot. We just came back from England and did Top Of The Pops. I was in Paris and I bought the Palm Pilot. I'd been seeing them around, and I wanted to get one. I never want to be the last person to find out about something. I don't want to be the first one to know, because the first one can be in for a lot of shock. I like to be No. 3 or 4. I like to know about technology and what's going on next. Through technology I am never left out. I can be on top of my game. That's what it represents to me.
You're one of the few hip-hop artists I've interviewed who is this Web-savvy.
As a community, the core of the hip-hop community won't realize how important this is until another facet of music takes it and uses it and plays it out. There are a few artists who do know what's going on. The Hieroglyphics, from out West, they're really into it. There's a lot of Internet MCs who are into it. So it's cool. I just hope that we all push it. It's a passionate feeling I have about the Internet.
Do you spend much time meeting people online?
I love a computer-literate woman, but I don't go around picking up chicks online. That's ridiculous, because you don't know if you're talking to a man or a woman. But I don't ask for phone numbers anymore when I go out. And I don't give out my phone number or pager. I don't deal with that. I ask for an email address and I give my email. That's the new pickup line. You're saying a lot about yourself and about where you're at. You can be more descriptive and specific about who you are and what you like when writing letters. You can learn if a girl can read, write, and spell when you communicate with email. She may look nice, but does she have anything "up here"? You can learn so much by not being intimately involved, but being Internet-ly involved.
Why do you think you are such a technology-lover?
I was introverted as a kid. I didn't have that many friends. I didn't play for the varsity or junior varsity teams--no basketball, no football, no track, nothing. I was that kid that went to school--every now and then I would act up--but for the most part, I was into hobbies. Remote-control helicopters, cars, boats, planes. Video games. Anything I could play with on my own. Anything electronic that would play me until I fell asleep. And as far as music, I've always been into hip-hop.
When did you start to perform?
I remember when I bought my first ghetto-blaster. It was $108.23. It was the most ridiculous ghetto-blaster on my block. But I worked hard. I worked two jobs to pay for it, and it was important to me. In order to breakdance and be nice with the popping and the locking and the headspins, scorpions, windmills, I had to have my box so I could practice in my crib. Otherwise, you have to go on the street with your cardboard and you'd look half-ass. In order to be good by the time I got out there, I would practice in my crib. I remember Rock Steady [Crew], I wanted to be a part of Rock Steady back in the day. It's crazy, because I always looked at things analytically. How to get from point A to D? You've got to do B and C in between. I like rhyming. I really love hip-hop. Do I want to be around in this music for a long time? Or do I want my rhymes to be seasonal? I definitely don't want to be seasonal, I want to be around a long time, so in order for me to do that, I have to take in a lot information--processing it and spitting it out in ways that keep intriguing the people. If I don't do that, I become the MC who's kicking the same rhyme, concept, and subject matter over and over. That's boring. Those types of MCs will be extinct eventually.
Who are some artists that will not be extinct?
Rakim. If you can, play a clip of Ra's "Follow The Leader" on the next issue of LAUNCH. It's hard to explain precisely what I mean. I would have to show you and say, "Listen to this verse." He kicked it in 1987, and it's now 1999, and everything he says still applies. It's incredible. That's why in school today, you read about the Civil War, the things Langston Hughes wrote about, or the things Shakespeare wrote about, and a lot of reasons we still study it, is because the concepts still apply. It's the difference between being ageless and being of-the-moment. I love the technology, I'll always be ahead of the pack. That's why I got my website, and I put my music on my site first, as opposed to going to a magazine and saying, "Review my album, and tell the masses what you think about my album." No, you go to my site, make up your own mind. You feel what you feel. The Internet gives me the chance to eliminate those channels between me and my fans I love it. I'll always be doing it.
Speaking of Rakim, you interviewed him, right? How was that experience?
It was deep, because I remember the first time I saw "I Ain't No Joke." The video was on and I got to it at the part where Flav was breakdancing and acting up. Ever since then, I've always been intrigued by Ra. Back then, I didn't realize he had a lot of things to say about religion and the Muslims and the 5% thing he was involved in. A lot of stuff went over my head because of my youth and my spiritual growth. Rappers like [Big Daddy] Kane used to go there, bring it back, keep it contemporary. He talked about the 5% thing too. I didn't realize what Rakim was in 1987, '86...As time went on, I got persuaded to listen to him more on each track. So, imagine, in '97, I got to interview Ra. I got to interview somebody I looked up to all this time. I don't need anybody's opinion from the hip-hop community or any other community regarding the contribution I'll make to this music, but I heard it from Ra, and that's somebody I look up to as an MC and a man. It was one of the most exhilarating feelings I've had since I've been in this industry. Just me and him kicking it. It meant a lot to me. Wherever you are, Ra, I love you, man.
Do you think you'll ever work together?
Up to this point, I never asked to do anything with him. It's just an understanding of what he is. He's an artist. He's Rakim. I'm Canibus. I don't want to do anything artificial: "Let's just do a record with Ra so everyone can see me do a record with Ra." We don't vibe with each other that way. It's just respect. Mutual respect. Initially, it was my respect for him, and then he told me he'd been watching me come up. That was great. It became a mutual respect. I would have been pretty content just to talk to him, and tell him I love him and have him say, "Yo, man. Peace." I would have been content with that. Next, I need to talk to the Pope. I need to get a Ouija board and talk to Carl Sagan. There's a lot of things I need to do, man. One by one, I've got to go to the Pentagon, get top security clearance, and kick it with the extraterrestrials in that room they've got over there. I'm going to do a lot of things before it's over.
Can-I-Bus? is a pretty interesting record--what's up with that?
For LAUNCH, I'll definitely let you know what's going on with the album. Log on to www.Canibus.com. Just go on there; it's a direct link to me. You can directly keep in contact with me and see what I'm doing. The album, Can-I-Bus, I call it that--without a question mark--because I'm not asking you anything. It's a statement. The whole album is based off of concepts. That's how I like to do things. Break it into concepts. I've got my macho braggadocio records; that's the hip-hop in me. That's what I used to do on the street corners to battle and rhyme all day. That's a part of me I'll never lose. Other than that, I have concept records on the album.
Can you tell me about some of those concepts?
"The Grand Deception" deals with a lot of things the masses aren't aware of. Another one is called "I Honor You," which talks about my relationship with my mother. How I came up. How I started. It's a concept record; it's not about me, but something I lived through. Another concept record called "What's Goin' On" talks about the urban club scene and people carrying firearms into the clubs where we perform. I just wanted to state that it's important that you realize whether you're a victim, a bystander, or somebody who carries firearms into a club, the fact that you have a gun will not scare me from coming to perform in the club. But for safety reasons, it's best to leave that gun at home. If you want to go on the battlefield, shoot up the place, we can do that. But a club is for making music, dancing; it's not the place for guns. I just wanted to put that out there.
You really come on strong. You're very passionate about certain things.
I grew up in so many different places. I didn't stay in one city, one school. I don't know what that's like to have a neighborhood and to go to school with the same kids from kindergarten to high school. I was always changing schools. That made me stronger in a lot of ways, but it also made me dysfunctional in a lot of ways. I don't really have the desire to be in one place too long now. I like to move around. Even more than that: If I don't know you, and I'm not interested in what you're doing, I'm not talkative with people like that. If I'm in a room with a lot of people and there's nothing interesting going on, I won't say a word. This just happens to be something interesting to me.
And hip-hop is interesting to you, obviously.
Anything I like, I get into it. I play it out to the fullest. I spend all my time doing the same thing. Rhyming is recreation, a hobby, and something I really love. I realized it's a tool to share my views, the truth. I started out beatboxing and a lot of people can't say that. A lot of people who rhyme can say they've been rhyming for three or four years. I've been in this for a decade-and-change. I started out beatboxing. Some people started out DJing. I've got ultimate respect for those who rhyme and DJ. I can still beatbox a little bit. Growing up, man, it wasn't a walk in the park. I was always fighting, somebody always had something to say, and I wasn't the type to turn around and walk away from the fight if I was right. I'm human. I make mistakes, and a lot of times, I got what I deserved. On the flipside, if I was right, and I felt in my heart that I was right, I wouldn't walk away. I take this rhyming seriously. People think I'm coming on so hard, so aggressive right off the jumpstart. I've always been that way. I feel like your first impression is your best impression. You don't get too many impressions after that. After that, you can jerk off, chill, take a rest, whatever. Do that after you make your statement, put your imprint in the ground. That's how I am.
Tell me about the problems you've had with LL Cool J. Ever since you recorded a rap for the "4,3,2,1" track on Phenomenon, you two have had big problems. I understand you rapped a line he took offense to and he retaliated with a rhyme of his own that disses you real hard.
Before all this, I was definitely a fan of everything that he did, you know? All the moves he made, all the important steps he made for this music. I just got caught up in a situation where I said something and he took it the wrong way. In order to appease him, I went back and changed what he was uncomfortable about. But he didn't change his verse about me. He didn't reciprocate the respect I had for him. Because of that, I lost my respect for him in that sense. That's why I did what I did. I don't regret it. If I could do it all over again, it wouldn't change. If I could rewind the clock up to the point that I was invited to be on the record, I would have declined it if I would have known it would have come to this. I did what I did and I don't apologize. I have no qualms about what happened. If you come through, step on my shoes, I'm going to see you about it. Throw eggs on my door, I'm going to see you about it. I'm not the one to turn around and walk away from anything. If I'm provoked, I'll let people know that. When I wasn't that way, I got trained to be that way. Otherwise, I'm a sweet, caring, chill-out, laid-back kind of person. If you give me a laptop and an analog line, and you give me some food and leave me in a corner, I'm good. I won't bother nobody. If you provoke me, I'll bite you right back. I'll take a big chunk out of you. I got those great white shark teeth--those teeth that go inward. I got six more rows behind this row. I don't let it come out, but when I'm ready, they'll come out and I'll take a big chunk out of anything.
Tell me about this new "rip-rock" trend you've got going.
Rip-rock happens to be the hybridization of rock 'n' roll and hip-hop. I kept the electric guitar sounds, drum sounds, and patterns of the way the music goes. That's what I used. And with hip-hop, I used my rhyming patterns. When I put them together they complemented each other. It just so happens that that type of music is not something that I would turn around and say belongs to hip-hop or belongs to rock 'n' roll. It's just there. The group Onyx did it when they did the remix of "Slam." That was incredible. At the time, people didn't realize what that was, but that's exactly what it was. Run-DMC did it with "Walk This Way." The times change, so my rhyme pattern is not the way Run did it; it's against some thrash beat. All-out nuts. That's the energy I get from rock 'n' roll.
Well, Canibus, that was quite an interesting conversation. Any last words to leave with your fans?
Log on to my site. It's got everything on there that you need to know about myself and what I'm doing. It's the best source of information you can get. There's a Q&A section and everything. It's for you, not for me, so you can get the words right from the horse's mouth.
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