Termanology drops his debut album Politics as Usual on September 30th. In this interview, he talks about his myriad of collaborations and his experiences as an up-and-comer. He also gives the most boring answer ever to our signature question. Nice, humble guy.
ML: How’s the press day going?
Term: I’m chillin’ man, kickin’ it man, smokin’ a blunt, man I feel so good right now.
ML: Anybody ask you any dumb shit yet?
Term: Yeah, some crazy shit, but I like the press days man, they help you out.
ML: If somebody’s been sleeping on Termanology so far, what songs do you think they should check out?
Term: I think the best thing to do is just go to iTunes and buy Hood Politics IV and V and get to really see who I am as a person and if you’re into my stuff then you go and cop the Politics as Usual. Those are like the lead up albums to the official album.
ML: You said you wanted to get the producers that did Illmatic, Reasonable Doubt and Ready to Die, right?
Term: Yeah, definitely. That was crazy man, because that was a vision I had and I didn’t know if I was gonna be able to make it happen, but I did. A lot of people tried to stop me from doing that, so I kept it moving and did my dream and shit and it ended up coming out crazy.
ML: What are your favorite tracks on each album?
Term: Oh man, that’s a hard one. Probably “Unbelievable” on Ready to Die. That and “Warning”. Those two are crazy, I mean everything on that shit’s crazy. Reasonable Doubt, probably “D’Evils”. I love “D’Evils”. That’s like the craziest. Jay and Premo went so hard and “Can’t Knock the Hustle” I love too. On Illmatic, my favorite shit is “NY State of Mind”. That’s like the definition of real hip-hop right there. That’s the shit.
ML: How come Statik isn’t on the album?
Term: Well the thing was, I did this album with all like platinum fresh legendary producers. This is like an elite group I hand picked. Statik is my brother, we work together a lot and do a lot of shit, but he understood that this dream and this goal was bigger than myself and himself. This was like a big picture type thing. He fell back from the beats, but he A&R’ed the project and helped put it together because these guys are legends and he looks up to them also. It was our dream to make it happen. So we did it.
ML: You’re going to be on his new album, right?
Term: Yeah, I was on Statik’s first album, seven records I did on there and on this one I got three. Yeah, Statik is my brother and you’re going to hear a lot of music from us in the future.
ML: How did you connect with DJ Premier?
Term: Met him in ’03. My man brought me to a video shoot Gang Starr was doing and then I gave him my demo, I spit for him and Guru and yeah, that was cool. I kept doing my thing for a couple years and then in late ’05, early ’06, Statik became really really good friends with Premo and they called me on the phone and played me “Watch How It Go Down” and asked me if I liked it. I fuckin’ loved that shit so I took it and I smashed it. Ever since then, it’s all love. Premo like fam now. I got a whole bunch of records with him and there’s more to come.
ML: That’s a good guy to have in your corner. Premo is pretty good, I’d say.
Term: Yeah, he’s the man, dog and I owe him a lot. After I did my first song with Premier, my stock went up. I started getting paid and it was no more free shows and free t-shirts. So I owe a lot to Premier, he’s the one with the new record with Bun B. He just keeps helping me up my stock.
ML: Everybody who records with Dre says the same thing: he’s a perfectionist, he makes them record the track like ten times. What’s it like working with Premier?
Term: It’s the same thing, man. He’s a perfectionist too. He’ll make me do a take like fifty times sometimes, but I respect his word. I always try to see his vision. I stick to my guns, but the only cat I pretty much let get in the driver’s seat and I just lean back is Premo. The rest of my music, I pretty much do on my own with my man Bob Nash. I grab the beat from a producer and I go up to Walker Sound, that’s my studio, my man Bob Nash runs that. He just leans back and let’s me do what I wanna do. All the rest of the tracks, I pretty much did on my own, but the Premo ones, Premo was really the one. Like, “rap faster right here, rap slow, go hard right here”. He’s a coach, he’s good.
ML: Who was your favorite producer on this album to be in the studio with?
Term: Oh, Premo was the shit. Pete Rock’s shit was great. I was in Bassline Studio with Young Guru. Young Guru recorded some legendary albums. Blueprint and all that shit. That was great and Pete Rock gave the hook to me and adlibbed the whole track, so it was really really love. Buckwild is my man, that’s my brother. I recorded like four or five songs with Buckwild and used one of those on the album. He’s going to executive produce the St. Squad album coming up soon too, my group. So Buck’s always fam. The rest of the cats gave me beat tapes which was fine too, ’cause we gotta get it done and as long as we get it done it’s on.
ML: It seems like you know a lot of legendary guys. Do they tell good stories?
Term: Aw man, they all got stories, the best stories you ever heard. That’s the thing, I’m a big hip-hop fan so I’m obsessed with the origin of hip-hop and how it started and everything that happened since it started. One minute I’m with Premo and he’s telling me about Biggie and Pac and all these cats and Easy Mo Bee has mad stories about Pac and BI and shit. They passin’ it down to me and we just keep it movin’ like that and keep the culture alive.
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