“The audience becomes like a booty call”
I had a chance to catch up with Cube last week, and the godfather of gangsta rap had loads to say—sounding off on topics ranging from the young guns trying to take over the game, to the South, Oprah and Jerry Heller. The interview ran in a Canadian newspaper, The Georgia Straight, today.
Here’s a couple of questions that didn’t make the cut that pertain to the web world:
The Internet has played a huge role in hip-hop in the past year—with MySpace and rap sites and discussion boards becoming increasingly popular. Do you think the Internet has changed hip-hop culture?
Of course. But it’s done a lot of things. It’s taken some of the power out of all these media outlets who funnel hip-hop to the people how they want. It gives people who don’t have the big major labels behind them a way to get their product, video seen, and voice heard. It’s just another way to get to the public without dealing with editors. So, it’s good in that way. In another way, it’s a way for a whole lot of false information to be spread. The jury is still out with me on the Internet. It’s done a lot to hurt the business. Cause everybody is getting paid off the music except the artist. If music isn’t lucrative, people aren’t going to keep doing it. If people don’t do it, you not going to get it. So people are putting their favorite artists out of business…We like PBS, the TV station where you got to pay to keep it going.
Recently, there’s been a trend of rappers jumping on discussion boards and blogs to defend themselves when dudes are talking shit about them. Is that something that you would ever do?
No. Cause you can’t. There’s no way to defend yourself from bullshit. Some people are going to believe it, some people ain’t. The more you talk, the more you hang yourself. That’s just the way it is. I don’t really care. People on the Internet have said that my favorite movie was Pretty Woman. That made me mad. I’ve never seen that movie before. But me going and trying to tell the world that on the Internet is a waste of time.
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