Kenyattah Black has
been involved in hip-hop for the past two decades, and recently gained
widespread notice for his feature on Vast Aire’s track "The Cannon of Samus"
from his album O.X. 2010: A Street Odyssey. Kenyattah is currently working on
his solo project Humble Yet Effective, as well as his collaborative project with Vast Aire, titled
Crimson Godz.
Q: As soon as you
popped up on Vast Aire’s “The Cannon of Samus,” everyone was asking who
Kenyattah Black is. Could you tell us a little about yourself?
A: That actually stems from me changing names, things like
that. Being in the background of a lot of events in hip-hop for the last 20
years. I used to go by the name of ‘Vital the Arab,’ then it went to
‘Vayatollah Khomein,’ and then, what stood out most for me was this Islamic
name which is ‘Blackman Allah’. I didn’t get that name Blackman Allah, so it
was time to do the move, and I went with Kenyattah Black.
It felt easier, like I’d be a war affiliate, a Wu-Tang
affiliate, coming from the The Rose Family Populayshun Clique, extending from
Rawkus [Entertainment] in 1994 to ’96, and then being a cohort of John Forte,
leaving Rawkus and going to Columbia Ruffhouse Refugee Camp. I would be like a
roadie or a hype man to John Forte and Wyclef [Jean] for a couple of years, and
I realized I could still have a chance [for a solo career], even though I’m
getting old, I still have a chance, because wisdom has no expiration date.
Q: You have a solo
album titled Humble Yet Effective
coming out. Do you know when you’ll be releasing that?
A: I know sometime next year. Not exactly, but what I’m
going try to do is release some mixtapes for this year, before the end of the
year, to put out something other than Crimson Godz [with Vast Aire] to show
what Humble Yet Effective will sound
like.
Q: How did you hook
up with Vast Aire?
A: Vast was always my friend, back in Washington Irving High
School, and he just was one of those guys that stood out. We was always in a
group of friends. There was a lot of rappers in New York City, 1993, entering
high school, and whenever there was a crew that stood out, he was one of them.
From Atoms Family to Druids to Operation Bomb, we had those crews, United Front,
that would battle any high school, and even from there we’d go to Washington
Square Park and hang with the NYU students trading our songs and our music.
Q: Are you and Vast
recording your Crimson Godz stuff now?
A: Yeah, we’re working on that right now. Everyday, we’re in
there. We’ve pushed the collaboration back and are focused on our unique sound.
Q: Vast Aire spoke on
how his spirituality played into his music. Does your Islamic faith tie in with
yours?
A: Being given that light, you adapt your life, and what you
give off, you receive in the longer timeline. Me being a young Islamic, I had a
lot of Islamic influences which shine off in the music, although I would never
beat it off into someone’s ear, or become a preacher, but I still build it into
a facet of the music because of the influences.
Q: Does your faith
make you more politically or socially conscious with your music?
A: I believe that’s true. You have a will and a choice to do
whatever you want to do, whether positive or negative, and social commentary is
like a choice also, because you can market a rock as a VCR if you rap it
correctly. You can sell anything in this world, and in New York, we learned
that at an early age. You could be conned for a Brolex.
If I’m going to influence people with my own conscious
thoughts, it’s making a difference, among other things. I’m not seeing people
market that, and in the forefront, I’m gonna be the conscious rapper, I'm gonna
be the one who gets all of that settled. I’m going to go out and police it for
them to think for themselves.
Q: How do you feel
about the mainstream hip-hop that’s dominating the radio play?
A: With anything, that’s life, and life is vast, and it’s a
cycle. We’ve seen this happen before, in many centuries before. Life comes in
many circles, it circles around. If this is what’s going on, and I pay
attention to the sound of the music or the sound of the multi-media or in any
other artform, even in TV, it’s gonna mirror what’s in the heart of it. It’s
gonna reflect the consciousness of the people in this time. And it’s going to
show where we’re going also, and where we just came from.
Queen Latifah was the big star at one time, and then they’re
going from her to Bo$$ and then to Eve to Nicki Minaj. There’s got to be a point
where it comes back to Queen Latifah again, and that’s what we’re doing with
this, we’re about to say ‘Alright, we’ve had enough of this bottle poppin’
music. It had its time, cool.’ Rock, even it had its time, it was a sentiment
of what the people were doing, from sipping syrup or taking some kind of drug.
A couple of years ago, it was drug dealing rap. Now it’s drug using rap.
Q: Do you think
hip-hop is getting ready to hit the beginning of the circle again?
A: Yeah, we’re going toward the conscious rap now. It’s
because the nerds are rising, and how they got in was through women. The nerds
is rising up. If Kanye sells more than 50 Cent, that tells me the nerds is
rising up, and using women to do it, so conscious rap’s got to be right up
next. Even if it’s a prediction, conscious rap is still conscious rap. The ones
who live the culture out, and reflect it in projections, not the ones that
market that way of life we’re living. It’s a sleeping giant, the game is a
sleeping giant right now, and it’s about to be awakened.
Q: Do you have any
specific goals or a message you want to send as a conscious rapper?
A: It’s better being the bigger rapper that hands out more
fish than the others. Learn how to fish, and teach people how to fish, that way
nobody’s hungry. Christ was one of the best at that. If it’s teaching people
how to rap, I’ll teach them how to rap. If you never want to rap, teach rhythm
and poetry under it all. That’s how you keep the poetry going.
Q: I read that you’re
also a graffiti artist. Are you still doing that?
A: No, no. I would say my rehab from it was going into logos
and graphic design.If I didn’t
have that, I would still be addicted to tags.
Q: What is it like
balancing out all of the different artforms that you practice?
A: At one time I was a shy kid, and I didn’t really know how
to express myself. So, what united my heart to break the fire was the Islam.
There was a peace, oneness, finding out that it wasn’t just a one person
culture, but a universal thing that existed about mathematics, and I could
always solve any problems through mathematics. That let me know I could express
myself through rap and through art in a new way. I’m part of a universal family
and I can really express myself now.
Q: Do you think
without Islam that you could be where you are today as an artist?
A: It’s possible. To be honest, I think Islam enhances it,
because you’re more in-tune with yourself. It depends on what you find in it,
and what I always figured is that Islam enhances it because you find a rhythm
and a peace about yourself and as well as others. If you see yourself and you
look inside yourself for all the answers, you wouldn’t have to look outside
yourself to see confusion. You’d see all of the same people. You’re all one,
one conscious mind linked by weaknesses and insecurities. As that, we won’t
step on as many toes, press as many buttons knowing that stuff.
Q: How do you feel
about the way Islam is looked upon in America?
A: I take it like a grain of salt. Someone once asked me the
reason for putting out Malcolm X, and he was missing certain facts, and one of
our older brothers, he would say ‘Well, you know, Elijah Muhammad said if
you’re not, get your books,’ so it’s still good, and then you’ve got to look at
it like, people who didn’t live with Malcolm know about Malcolm X now, good or
bad, that’s why they did what they did in the movie.
It’s all good in all reality, even when it seems or appears
to be bad. Life is not Islam. That’s a good thing. Even if it looks bad, if
they look at that, all they’re going to find is that it’s good. If they’re
paying attention to it long enough under the microscope, they’ll find that it’s
all good, really, that’s how I’m looking at it. If they find something bad in it,
I wouldn’t even consider it negative. I know for a fact this is all good. We
have perceptions of it that get misconstrued. When someone gets killed, people
really pay attention and think‘Wow, even a Christian and Arabian calls Allah ‘God’.’ It’s language. In
the case of a Muslim, they call God ‘Allah’. That’s just a language.
Q: Would you say that
you’re not fueled by any aggression as an artist?
A: As far as creativity, I have personal things that fuel
me, but I won’t let the outside world fuel me, you know what I mean? It’s
easier to say, when I watch the news, it’s like ‘Wow, they just bombed a
church,’ and that wouldn’t affect me, as far as in my own community, if I knew
somebody who really did stuff like that. That’s closer than the so-called
outside world, you know, we share the same world. That’s why my first project
will be Humble Yet Effective, because
you would never notice it unless I give it out in music, unless I expressed it
in music, you would never know that I’m remaining at peace. We all have a rage
or inner war within.
Q: How do you think
your first mixtape is going to be received?
A: I think I’m going to shock the listener, because I’ll be
33-years-old in January. They’ll see me physically and think I’m maybe
seventeen, I’m baby-faced—‘This is a young looking guy. He’s coming with some
serious will. He’s connected to everybody I like. Basically, where did he come
from?’ It’s going to be a shocking effect, like, I could be in a room with Carly
Simon and James Taylor, parents of Ben Taylor, and the next day, I could be in
the room with Wu-Tang, and it’s the same family in the street music, a marriage
in the many worlds.
Q: What has being in
“The Cannon of Samus” with Vast Aire done for your career since it was released?
A: To be honest, I’m still learning as the days go by,
because I don’t notice it as much, and when I was starting to speak, looking
last year to this year, definitely. I find time to spend with people who listen
to me how I listen to Rakim. That’s amazing. Rakim was the guy that made me
think. It took me three or four times to listen, but now it’s clicked in. He
didn’t water down or compromise himself. He would just write those metaphors.
Q: Can you give a
date on when you plan to drop your first mixtape?
A: I think Christmas, between the 20th and 25th.
Q: Is there any
significance behind why you’d drop it on Christmas Day?
A: Not really. Not even on a marketing level. I’m going for
that because I’m thinking, my birthday is January 5th. I want something out
before my birthday, and I’m thinking before the ball drops too. I know we’re in
the heat right now, and it’s going to get cold, and it’s better to listen to
when it’s cold. Nothing to do with no holy days.
Q: Do you have a
title yet?
A: I was going to do the opposite of my album title, Humble Yet Effective, and it was going
to be like ‘Aggressive Yet Selective.’
Q: Do you have
anything to say to the reader?
A: I want to say this is the perfect time to get to know me.
The game will never be the same at this point. The eyes are open. So, there’s
no excuses at this point. The light is on, everything’s exposed.
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