Copywrite talks to StupidDope about his new album God Save The King: Proper English Version which is a re-release of his February album God Save The King with a plethora of UK talent thrown in for good measure (hence the name). Copywrite also fills us in on his love for grime music, the new MegaHertz album Megacy and why he thinks Cali femcee Kreayshawn is dope.
God Save The King: Proper English Version – what is the proper English version? What made you want to re-release? The Proper English Version was the original but we decided to put the US version out first. We just got so many songs that we decided that we might as well do another version of it which we put out first which ended up being the version that was more like my solo album. But we still felt that doing all the stuff with everybody from the UK was a dope idea to bridge that and to kind of show respect. That was that. We thought it might confuse people if we put out the English version first. I’m really happy with the response I’ve been getting for both but really for the Proper English Version. Basically, it’s been received the way we hoped it would be received.
How have the responses between both versions differed? Well, I will say this… The US is not paying as much attention to the Proper English Version as I wished it would. They’re not. But I am happy that at least the UK cats are. At least there’s that. But you know what? That kinda goes to prove my point. Sometimes the US can just have their heads up their own asses and they don’t pay attention to what’s going on unless it affects them or unless it involves them. So I guess I kinda just proved a point with dropping this album but I’m not mad at all. I think its very dope. I think the real Copywrite fans are paying attention to the album. I’m happy with both responses. The first one got an XL review from XXL review. That’s real dope but I wish that XL would have reviewed the Proper English Version because I feel the music on there is really good and undeniable and had they reviewed it, they would have had to give it a good review also. It’s just politics though.
Do you think it’s just politics, or do you think the US doesn’t understand UK hip hop? Possibly. There are people that they should listen to. When Danny Brown says that one of his favourite genres is grime, they should wonder why and take a listen to it. Danny Brown is just some dude from Detroit. Detroit is super gutter, super street. Danny Brown’s worked with Black Milk, people get it twisted about him. He’s a smart dude. He’s real hip hop to the core. So if he says that he really likes grime, and he’s popular right now, I would think that people would pay attention to that and listen to it and see what it is he likes about it. The shit out there is real dope. The shit out there has been dope for a while. I’ve been going out there since 1998/1999 and that’s when I first realised that it’s really not that different. The slang and the accents – that’s about it.
Are there any UK artists you are a fan of that weren’t featured on your album? Yeah. I’m cool with Rhyme Asylum. I’ve done two tracks with them. And the reason why I didn’t get them is because I’ve done some tracks with them before. I wanted to do something a little different and I wanted to shed some light on the people that aren’t getting that much light out here in the US but I feel like they should. The Snowgoons. Those are friends of mine and I was supposed to be on their new album but I didn’t make the deadline. DJ Noize, that’s my homeboy. I could just go on and on. I like Lady Sovereign. Lady Sovereign live is unfuckwithable. She’s dope live. That’s why I love going out there. It’s updated but the excitement for hip hop is like how it was out here in the 80’s and in the early 90’s. Out here, nobody goes to hip hop shows. It’s gotta be something really trendy. It’s gotta be Mac Miller (no offense to Mac Miller) but they won’t go to see like Run DMC. They won’t go to see a Dilated show out here. But they’ll go see 2Chainz. They’ll go see all the dumb shit that’s on the radio. They really lost the excitement for hip hop out here a while ago, it’s very small circles out here but they’ve still got it out there in the UK.
Who would be your dream collab? It would be produced by Radiohead. Not Tom York solo but Radiohead. The other guy would write it. It would be me, Eminem, DOOM, Slick Rick and Joe Budden. That would be it.
You made mention of ‘trendy’ artists. 2Chainz recently topped the Billboard charts. How does that make you feel as an MC? There’s different sides to it. 2Chainz is a smart guy and he knows what he’s doing. When he sounds how he sounds on records he’s not as flat or as ignorant as he may sound. He used to be in Ludacris’ crew. His name was Tity Boi. He’s been in Disturbing Tha Peace for years and nothing happened with them. So he had to really dumb his shit down even more and it works for him. I’m not surprised. I used to get frustrated in high school. When you first get let down when you find out how the industry works. I’ve known how it’s worked for a long time and I know what you need. You need the machine behind you. Whether you’re a good artist or a bad artist, you need the machine behind you for most situations. It’s very seldom that you spread without a big machine. That’s what’s so special about Odd Future. When they spread, they didn’t have a machine at first. They spread just because people on the internet really liked what they were doing and kids were really diggin’ it. Then Interscope came to them. It’s very seldom. Slaughterhouse. I love Slaughterhouse. Every real emcee should love Slaughterhouse and I love what they’re doing and they have a machine behind them. That’s dope. Now we get to see if the machine that’s behind all these wack dudes is gonna do the same for some extremely talented dudes like Slaughterhouse.
Who else outside of Slaughterhouse in the US do you listen to? I like Danny Brown. I like Earl Sweatshirt. I like Sean Price. He’s got a new record coming out that I’m looking forward to getting. I think Hopsin is dope.
What about female rappers? Oh. Female rappers. Ok. I like Jean Grae. I like Eternia, she’s dope. MC Lyte, I’m always gonna like. Lauryn Hill I’m always gonna like. Roxanne Chante I’m always gonna like. Just because of what they did when they were in there heyday I know people get burnt out of the rap industry, especially if you’re from those days because you were getting jerked. You were not making any money off record sales. Ummm… Who else? Do you rap?
No. *laughs* I was gonna throw you in too. Oh… I know I’m gonna catch flack for this but I don’t care! I like Kreayshawn. I think Kreayshawn is dope.
Is Kreayshawn really hip hop though? One would debate. Ok, does she have dj’s in her music and is she break dancing and trying to “Save the culture”? No. But she’s from Oakland. I’ve lived in Oakland before and I know how grimy Oakland is. She is impressive to me because you don’t see many white chicks like that in one of the dirtiest, grimiest, fastest, quickest moving hustle paced cities in the world doing what she’s doing. And she’s legit. Mistah Fab actually got Kreayshawn her deal. She’s not the greatest rapper on earth but I liked how she was spittin’ on “Gucci Gucci” and I like her demeanour because I know what kind of chick she is. I’ve seen chicks like that. She’s cool. She’s not a super beast on the mic but I guess there’s not too many chicks out there like that besides Jean Grae. Jean Grae is super, super official on the mic.
What’s next? We just finished the MegaHertz album. For people who may not know who MegaHertz is, that’s me, RJD2, Jakki da Motamouth, Tage and Camu Tao (rest in peace). We just finished a 17 track album. Production from RJD2, Harry Fraud, Illmind, Stu Bangas, La Coka Nostra’s on it. It’s dope. Honestly, it’s the best album that I’ve been a part of. I really, really, really, really, really love this album. Should be dropping October but there are some minor things that we have to go back into the studio and fix up. It might be early 2013 at the latest.
Source
