COURTESY OF ANDREW FRIEDMANRJD2’s full-length, mostly instrumental debut, “Deadringer,” (Definitive Jux records, 2002) has vaulted him from small-time DJ in Columbus, OH, to one of the most successful underground hip-hop artists of the day. On the track “Final Frontier,” listeners first encountered Soul Position, the seriously dope combination of RJ’s beats and Columbus emcee Blueprint’s rhymes. Blueprint is no slacker either, having released several albums on his own Weightless record label, doing some very impressive work on the mic as well as with beats. On tour in support of the new Soul Position album, “8 Million Stories” (Rhymesayers Entertainment), RJD2 and Blueprint came through on Sunday night to rock Washington University’s own Gargoyle. I caught up with their drunk asses backstage, warned extensively that they didn’t want any traditional interview crap. So instead of discussing anything remotely relevant, we talked about my girlfriend.
Student Life: RJ, are you rich yet?
RJD2: Rich beyond your wildest dreams, poor boy.
SL: Ashamed to be talking to the peons like me?
R: It doesn’t fill me with shame, it fills me with, what do you call that emotion, pity. It fills me with pity. I pity that you don’t have the get-up-and-go and chutzpah, as they say, to get yours.
SL: I’m trying to get mine, but it’s St. Louis. You come from Columbus, the hip-hop capital of the world.
Blueprint: It’s at least the hip-hop capital of Ohio. And the midwest. It’s the New York of the midwest.
R: Columbus people are saying it’s the new Cleveland.
SL: I’m from Pittsburgh, I hate Cleveland.
(DJ PRZM, touring with Soul Position, enters)
PRZM: Yo, I lived in Pittsburgh for four years. I went to the Art Institute.
B: Man, don’t interview him, this is Soul Position’s time! Fuck DJ PRZM! It’s all about Soul Position! Fuck Pittsburgh too.
(PRZM chimes in to rep for his group, Spitball. I mention that Bru Lei, also in Spitball, hit on my girlfriend at Scribble Jam 2002.)
B: Who’s your girlfriend?
SL: The one working the door.
B: She’s hot, man, she’s a cutie.
P: Get this in the interview.
B: You gotta marry her man, there’s a lot of vultures around.
SL: You got no idea.
P: Illogic stole my boo at the store today!
SL: Here’s a promotional tie-in. She’s on the cover of my album. (I hand RJ a copy of my album, “andy where are you.”)
R: Uh oh…strike one, when the interviewer hands you his demo.
SL: I was gonna hand you my demo anyways.
R: Strike one!
(Blueprint answers his phone.)
B: The Vikings got their asses kicked today. The Vikings got housed, like 42-21. Doug Flutie was on some Boston College shit.
SL: Anyways, do you think having Jakai and Copywrite on your album helped to introduce those artists to a new audience? I feel like a lot of your fan base is more indie rock fans than hip-hop fans. Do you think this will turn them more towards battle raps?
R: I don’t know if they’ve gotten into it, but they’ve probably been exposed to it. Indie rock kids, I don’t know, they’re finicky about their rap. They want some PC shit, they want Jurassic 5.
B: Indie rock kids don’t feel Blueprint. You’re only down because you’re hip-hop.
SL: I’m pretty indie rock. I got an indie rock button.
B: That doesn’t make you indie rock, indie rock is in the heart.
SL: So how you do feel about the political situation in America right now?
R: I don’t know, I’m not a Bush fan.
B: Bush? George W. Bush? Or are we talking about women?
R: No, cooch is great, the cooch is excellent, but The Dub, the Lil’ Dub…I’m not feeling him.
SL: Who’s your pick of the democrats right now?
B: Schwarzenegger!
R: Gary Coleman?
SL: You guys aren’t paying attention to the primaries? Howard Dean? Dennis Kucinich? He’s from Ohio.
R: I haven’t paid attention, I don’t really know what’s going on. As long as it’s not Bush, I don’t care. It could be the devil.
SL: But KRS-ONE said political activism is one of the elements of hip-hop.
R: That’s cool for KRS, do people still listen to him? They still care what he thinks?
SL: I think he just did a track with Warren G.
R: That’s interesting. Only the backpackers care about KRS-ONE thinks. You’re a backpacker man.
SL: No we don’t, we only care what El-P has to say. How do you feel about this beef? (The Demigodz, a respected crew with members from Boston and New York, has been waging a war of words with, among others, Def Jux’s El-P and Columbus emcee Copywrite.)
R: The 7L and Esoteric beef? I don’t know, I think it’s extending somebody’s career. It’s extending somebody’s little two and a half minutes of fame, and for somebody else it’s a waste of time.
SL: Now I’m a big Copywrite fan, but I respect Esoteric too…
B: He’s one of seven-thousand seven-hundred.
R: He is!
(silence)
R: He’s lost on the math. Son, do the math!
B: Yeah El-P’s new diss track is called “7700 Units Sold to Date.” You’re one of 7700.
SL: I never said I bought his shit!
B: Oh, you downloaded it!
R: He’s even worse! He didn’t even buy it! He’s a fan but he don’t buy the record!
B: Kinda iffy.
SL: Man RJ, I bought your album, I bought your fuckin single, I bought “Speaking Real Words” for two dollars used.
B: It’s ok if you like them!
SL: I just think Copywrite has more of a future.
B: He shits on them on his worst day.
SL: Print, are you doing this whole interview while you’re on the phone with your girl?
B: This is my boo right here, I ain’t talked to her in a day.
SL: So what have you been listening to these days?
R: Wanda at Large, Head of State, Down to Earth…
B: Bumpy Knuckles, “Industry Shakedown.”
R: Geto Boys, “Grippin on that Other Level.”
SL: How bout some Ganksta Nip?
B: No Nip, if we had Nip we’d bump it. It’s hard to find.
R: He doesn’t even fit on an iPod.
(RJ indicates the iPod would explode if one were to put Ganksta Nip on it.)
SL: How bout E-40?
B: I got “In A Major Way” on my shit right now! That’s flavorful. Who’s fuckin with 40 Water?
SL: Sprinkle Me Mang. You throw down a 40 Water track in the club, half the people are grillin you, the other half get rowdy. I had some girl try to slap me for playing “Gasoline.”
B: No doubt.
(Blueprint picks up my demo again.)
B: This is what it’s all about it. This right here.
SL: You know what the best part is? You know what my birthday present was last year?
B: Her?
SL: Besides that. Meters records on vinyl.
B: You gotta marry her. Don’t put it off man, there’s mad vultures around! And we ain’t trying to let you talk to her. We’re gonna be on it…
SL: You know how many rappers have hit on my girlfriend?
B: I’m not a rapper.
R: This interview is great for talking about your girl.
SL: Anyways, you guys like Columbus, what other cities you guys like to chill in? Talk on the urban situation in America.
(missing my point entirely, Blueprint quotes half of “Shook Ones, Pt. II” by Mobb Deep)
R: Nah, we’re gonna flip this around…where do we like to chill?
B: You know where I chill? I don’t chill nowhere…let me tell you the urban situation.
R: I only know about the situation inside of my house, I got beats piling up. I know the living room situation.
B: The bathroom situation, kinda iffy. My patio situation, mad hectic. Mad dragonflies. Gnats on my patio.
R: The backyard dog shit situation? Real.
B: REAL.
SL: Favorite Street Fighter character?
B: Ryu! No, Blanka. He electrocutes mufuckers, right?
R: I never played Street Fighter. I don’t play fighting games.
B: He plays those…I’m hiding in a tunnel, come find me.
R: I play the Tom Clancy, those war games. Strategy games. Shit where you gotta think.
B: The games where it takes a week to figure out if you’re winning or not.
SL: Print, you been producing or rapping longer?
B: I started rhyming before I started producing. I was rhyming in ’95, started doing beats in ’97. After that, I mastered every aspect of every art and I am the biggest genius in hip-hop.
SL: It seems like everybody rhymes these days. Do you think it dilutes the scene when everyone is multitalented?
B: No, because no one is doing everything good. I don’t care if you spread yourself thin doing three or four things. I do two things. Rapping and producing. And I’m going to stick to those two. I like to believe I’m pretty damn good at those. But I’ll step up off of producing and let this man take over. And if they bring their girls to the show…
SL: Yo, stop makin’ out with my demo. Did you have any influence on the beats on the Soul Position album?
B: I was like, “RJ, keep it pimpish.” That was it. I said keep it pimpish and RJ knows pimpish. I just showed up and kicked my gangsta lyrics.
R: I got my piles of shit. I got thug shit, gangsta shit, pimp shit, soft shit, he was just like, “send me the pimp pile.”
B: The pimp pile came at me like full-fledged.
SL: Who do you send the soft shit to?
R: Fabolous? He’s always talkin’ about the ladies.
SL: How about a collabo with Ashanti?
B: I’d fuck the shit out of Ashanti. Print that. Your girl ain’t Ashanti, but she’s cute though.
SL: Man, will you and your chenille hat stop mackin’ on my girl? Your hat looks like a pillow from Bed Bath and Beyond.
B: Chicks dig my hat. If you ask your girl if she likes my hat, she’ll dig it.
RJD2 and Blueprint rocked the house, as did opening acts Illogic, Jia Davis, and Sac Lunch. “8 Million Stories” is in stores now. My girlfriend liked the hat, but my friend Dana didn’t. Thanks to RJ and Blueprint for the interview, Ari and Adam at KWUR, and the Gargoyle respectively for throwing the show.