The sense of liberation after conquering a fear makes me feel alive. With that said Saturday October 6th I hopped off some public transportation and rolled solo into Berbati’s Pan to here some quality hip hop (state of mind, Grey Matters, Grouch, Qwel, and Sandpeople). I had my mini tape recorder in my pocket with hopes to interview one of my favorite rappers but wondering if I had the umph to pull it off. Well most of the time it doesn’t hurts to ask, so after detaching from my fear emotion I went for it and the following is the outcome of a little conversation I had with Qwel of Typical Cats. Who according to some is the best rapper in hip hop right now. Check him out for yourself. http://www.myspace.com/qwe1
(Before you dip into this interview please know that Qwel uses raw language. Its funny how when you type a tape recorded conversation you lose an aspect of communication that took place. You can’t sense my nervous energy or Qwel’s sincerity in what he says. I tried to type it like I heard it to capture the inner views of Qwel. Enjoy.)
emajyn- Its October 6th 2007 we are here with Qwel in Portland at Berbati’s Pan we got a hip hop show going on; we got hip hop rappers, djs, hype men, we got second hand weed smoke and alcohol flowing. I want to ask you this Qwel, say there is an aborigine from outside of civilization and comes into Western civilization and he starts hearing these beats, rhymes whether he goes to a show or hears a record, how would you describe to him what hip hop is? What is hip hop?
Qwel-Well I would just show him. If he comes in and its already playing, let him listen man. I guess its so cliche and shit but its like hip hop is a big umbrella. I would say he would have to pick and choose his own shit of what he likes from it, there is so much range in and out. Hip hop is culmination of all the music to date thus far until now. There is bluegrass drums, fucking Isaac Hayes drums, banjos and accordions. But I bet you the shit that I find raw he would probably find raw, the raw shit. Its something undeniable that maintains its primitive aborigine love to it.
emajyn- Yea, so from a lot of us are exposed to hip hop from the outside in, we see stuff like Kanye vs. 50 cent hype. How would you describe hip hop from being on the inside?
Qwel- there is two different things; there is hip hop the musicians and hip hop the business. Its like the difference between boxers and professional wrestlers. You don’t hold professional wrestlers to the same standard. You’re not like ‘macho man can’t fight.’ Its not about that shit. Its not what you come expecting, its a whole different thing. From the inside out, I’m inside one half of it that isn’t professional wrestling yet, but shit its quickly becoming underground professional wrestling. For me personally the difference in being an insider is you become a little bit more jaded when you meet some of these rappers, ‘no brown eminem’s back stage’ type motherfuckers. That’s kind of disheartening. But on a different level I get mad and frustrated at the way shit is cause I volunteered, I didn’t know I volunteered, but I volunteered not be a fan no more, knowhatImsayin. The only way I can stomach my own shit is like two bottles of red wine. Seriously you get this depression you don’t even like this shit. You like what you do but its part of the built in drive, okay you did that it was wack now move on or whatever. I’m thankful for it and shit, I ain’t complaining, but even listening to other mcs and I’m like this is how I would have done that beat or I can’t just shut the fuck up and listen to this shit, it makes me mad. Cause like I dunno I miss it real bad. I can’t wait to just be Clark Kent instead of Clark Kent superman and shit. You know, just like be a fan and shit. Its weird cause if I had the freedom now to pick and choose what is good and not, I would definitely not be looking around to other fans to see what I should think is good. Its really weird man. I dunno we could talk forever about that. But that’s the only difference I know of, because accordingly I only know my shit and he only knows his shit.
emajyn- You seem to have a unique voice in hip hop you’re bringing some deep spiritual content along with being really raw on the same tip. How would you describe that path you walk?
Qwel-Man, just same shit as you day to day. Man I have kids and I have a wife dawg. When I had my first child. you remember the first time you did acid and you trip and its like clouds and fluffy crying half laughing tears. But the first three days after that when its the come down of like man that’s a tree for the first time for real. And we really live on a big brown and green thing, but big blue and white fluffy things floating over us like that’s it. That is really the real truth. All the science…Man the deepest physics, aerodynamic physics, says its impossible for a bumble bee to fly. Like mathematically the shape, the aerodynamics, the ratio between lift and drag, you know what I mean, they don’t add up in the proportions of a bumble bee. So the deepest science is still fucking Plato’s cave, motherfuckers standing in a cave talking about the shadows on the wall. We’re making those shadows, no wonder we agree.Yea, so having a kid it just kind of brought me back like I dunno I really don’t care about what anybody thinks. And the spiritual path man, I’m probably no more spiritual than every man ,but I look into these things that I feel, and these things that I see. Like love is a real thing you can’t measure it. Or all these other things they’re real and shit. I just looked into them, I dunno probably same as you.
emajyn- Speaking about love, that track on The Harvest, ‘where I go, there I go’…
Qwel- I was so broke man. When I got married man.. I woke up in the morning, me and my wife were chillin, we weren’t even married yet and I was like ‘lets get married.’ I met her like three months before that, first time I met her. And I was like ‘let’s go get married right now.’ I borrowed the dough from her parents to get the marriage license, so broke but we went and got married. But when we got married we got our little spot together and I don’t do anything beside rhyme and obviously its not paying well at this point and that is like my wedding present to her. Man I said, ‘ light forms through ballerina fingers and she sings when its funny, like honey harp strings strum to the breeze that just loves me. Like how when you dip your finger in honey how it makes like a string if you could do that so gentle to make honey harp strings or see a ballerina on stage the light through her delicate toe..’ man fuck Shakespeare. No doubt, plus not only that it was monumental to me because hip hop in the way it has been, has this consensus developed that hip hop doesn’t make really good love songs, it doesn’t make really good theme songs yet, it doesn’t make really good rock songs yet. And I feel like I made one of the most sincere straight up love songs.
emajyn-yea totally I printed out those lyrics and its just poetry, its just beautiful…. The albums of yours that I’ve really listened to a lot, one of my friends I worked with introduced me to your stuff a year or so ago, is The Harvest and Freezerburner….
Qwel- Well those are two parts of the same thing, I’m doing four seasons, so The Harvest is the autumn the harvest time and Freezer Burner is the winter album, I’m working on the spring right now…
emajyn- so with the season concept the motif seems to be this thing of change. Like what is change? The seasons change, you talk a lot about change…
Qwel- Change is like first cousins with suffering…
to be continued, stay tuned for part II.
