Posted on 11/12/2007

When O.J. Simpson was hauled out of his infamous white Bronco in 1994, people automatically jumped to conclusions. Guilty Simpson—unrelated, in case you were wondering—could be subject to those same early assumptions as well. The Detroit lyricist and member of the Dreadnaughts crew has been igniting the underground scene with his unorthodox flow and ghetto wit since his breakout performance on Jaylib’s Champion Sound, plus a healthy amount of work with legendary producer J Dilla. Considering his track record, one might assume that Guilty can only rap about guns, or that he’ll struggle without Dilla behind the boards. The truth is not only is Guilty working busily with producer Black Milk and others prepping his long awaited solo debut Ode to the Ghetto on Stones Throw Records, but his creative ambitions go beyond simply cocking nines on wax. On the eve of the beginning of a European tour co-starring Black Milk and Sean Price, Guilty Simpson talked with Okayplayer about his latest works, Dilla’s legacy and why you’ll never catch him in a K-Mart parking lot.  

OKP: You about to head overseas on tour, what's the reaction you get in Europe?

GS: They have an unbelievable energy and I feel like they have a deep love for hip hop music. As opposed to the States, where you might have a few people who think they're too cool to show some energy, might feel like they'll get ragged on by their boys on the way home. But over there they don't have a problem with having a good time and I really love it. I love the energy.

OKP: What up with the Stray Bullets mix tape/pod cast that just dropped?

GS: It's a collective of miscellaneous songs. Some people in Detroit [have] heard some of them...It's basically getting the world acquainted with the shit I've been doing. A couple of joints that may not have made the record, snippets from the record. It's a collage of things so people can get acquainted with what I do and see who I am as an artist.

OKP: You're involved in a lot of stuff-the Calitroit album w/ Black Milk and Bishop Lamont, Dreadnaughts, your solo album. Which one is your top priority?

GS: First and foremost, getting my record out to people is the most important thing on my list. But I feel like its good for me to stay busy and grow as an artist so when I make these connections with people and tell me they want to do something, I try to capitalize on the moment. But most definitely first and foremost, making my mark as a solo artist [is important]. Letting people I deserve the recognition that I've been receiving. I think that's like the main thing, just letting people know I can stand on my own two [and] provide good music without the help of the people who I've been blessed enough to have as friends. Definitely Ode to the Ghetto is the number one priority.

OKP: How close is the album to being completed?

GS: It's done. They in the process now when they about to mix it. They actually already starting mixing, they still have some records to mix but that's a done deal. I'm done with vocals.

OKP: For people who aren't so familiar with your past work, how would you describe your album?

GS: Well, I...shit. You know you can basically sum it up as grimy lyrics over rugged beats, but I bring much more than that to the table. I can kick joints of substance and sticky subjects and stuff like that. But basically my main thing now is just making a splash and letting people know that I'm really all about lyrics and bringing that back to the table. It's not always about the most positive thing if you want to put it in that breath, but at the same time I'm all about the creative process. You know making lyrics and flows and patterns and creative ways to challenge a beat. That's the main thing I bring to the table. Just like unpredictable flows. You might not know how I'm gonna rhyme on the beat or different stuff like that. But really just the creative process and building and constructing a rhyme, I think that kinda got lost in the mix. That's not the priority of a lot of artists these days. You would hear guys like Big Daddy Kane or Redman or people of that nature, and you knew they actually took some time and thought in constructing the rhyme. I'm trying to bring that back to the game.

OKP: How does a lyrics-oriented artist like Guilty Simpson market himself outside of Detroit?

GS: I mean honestly, I know it might not seem like the creative marketing scheme, I want to be judged by my music. I want to really bring that vibe to it. We have strategies and different things of how people can view me and all of that but sometimes I think even though marketing is critical, sometimes its overrated when your judging an artist that's trying to have longevity in the game rather than going for an easy check. I think a lot of artists need that identity and need to sell themselves. I think a lot of times they lean on things that have totally nothing to do with the music sometimes. They might come with a signature dance or signature ad-lib or signature whatever for people to recognize them. But I kind of want to totally be judged by my music and that might be a risky way to take it, but that's just the point where I am just in general with my lyricism and me as an artist. That's where I'm trying to go. I really want people to just judge me from the music because I'm a person, you know I fuck up and do fucked up shit sometimes too...So you know in the end I'm trying to be like, ‘Was he a good rapper, yes or no?' That basically my main goal; let my music speak for me. No gimmicks.

OKP: It seems like you're at a good place to do that at Stones Throw. It seems like they allow their artists to shine based on their music.

GS: Right, most definitely. That's why that was the place that I chose. Before Dilla passed, when he was talking to me about possibly getting me over there, those were of the strong points that he addressed about this being a good situation for me to come to Stones Throw because basically they would let me be an artist. I wouldn't have to compromise my sound or worry about someone who knows nothing about the music telling me what's hot. I think that is really important towards the game still having integrity. People who actually have a love for hip hop coming together with me making decisions about my music makes me value their opinions. So it's actually a perfect fit at Stones Throw, I couldn't complain, if I wanted to.

OKP: You mentioned Dilla as being instrumental in getting you to Stones Throw. It's been almost two years since he's passed, as well as Proof. How have you changed as an artist and a person since then?

GS: He gave me the sense of urgency. A lot of people might not realize it outside of our circle but I know what Dilla did, and you got to give Proof a lot of credit too. But you know those guys were somewhat at times immortalized in Detroit amongst the people that were really up on their music. So that kind of just let me know that you can't take nothing for granted and anything can happen and whatever is given to you can be taken away at any moment and that just gave me the sense of urgency to really clamp down and be serious about this music. It let me know that even if I do get successful in this game, it's still not promised that I'll be around forever.

If I was secure with finances or everybody around the world recognizes and notices me, no man is bigger than a disease and anywhere there's poverty in the ghetto and things like that, you're definitely not exempt from violence, which was Proof's case. So it let me know to be serious about this music, not to put myself in compromising positions in places I have no business being. In Dilla's case it was just be healthy. You know, live every day like it's my last...No matter what happens it can be taken away from you. Take control of your destiny man. Don't be in places where I don't have no business being around people I have no business being around, people who don't care about my music or care about my promising future.

OKP: On a related note, it seems like a lot of rappers are putting themselves in compromising position with T.I. being the most notable case. As someone who raps about guns, with songs called "Strapped" and mix tapes like Stray Bullets, how do you feel about what has happened with him?

GS: I mean man, honestly, where I'm from...I'm not trying to make my place seem tougher than anybody else's place, but you know, I'm definitely not gonna touch him. I feel like he should have gone about it in a different way, but if he felt like he needed that for protection you know, that's on him. I definitely don't agree with the way he went about it, being that some people would call him stupid, but at the same time, he was dealing with a person who was dealing with another person, meaning his bodyguard, who he trusted his life with. So I'm sure he didn't think that the snake would be coming from that angle, as in [the bodyguard] betraying him. But I feel like once you've reached a certain level of success, you have to...follow certain chains of command. I mean, there's no way T.I. should have been in a K-Mart parking lot buying Uzis, I know that much. But at the same time, you have no idea what's going on in that man's life. So it's just a shame that he may be on that level of success where he feels like he has to go buy three Uzis with silencers on them, it's a shame that it has to be like that but you know, that's life. I'm a man who's made mistakes and I'm probably going to continue to make mistakes, so I'm definitely not going to judge him in general because I don't know his life. I understand people have that ‘no snitching' clause and all that, there's different ways to view stuff like that but you know, I feel like it's a travesty that his home boy would stick the shaft to him like that. Different people see it different ways, but that's kind of how I see it. He got betrayed by his home boy.

You know, I rap about guns, different stuff like that, but that's been reality in my life since my team years. So it's hard for me to get on the microphone and rap about someone else's life, I'm gonna rap about my life and if guns are included then guns are included. Before you judge my lyrics, understand my life and understand me as a person. That's probably the same thing T.I. would tell anyone who had questions about what he's going through. But I'm pretty sure he regrets a whole lot of things right now.

OKP: Let's get back to the music side...A lot of people got an introduction to you on "Take Notice" off the re-released Ruff Draft EP. Could you take me through the creation of that record?

GS: [Dilla] was just going through loads and tons of beats, playing them for me. Of course I was feeling all kinds of shit. When he pulled up "Take Notice," we was in the studio blowing l's...and basically when he played that, I thought it was really off-center and [out of] left field, really sinister. He really wanted to hear me on that track. So I dabbled off into it, fucked with it for about an hour or so and I came up with something. I was kind of improvising, just jumping in the beat and rhyming on certain parts. That was more Dilla than anything. He had a whole lot of beats that he had, but once he played "Take Notice" he kind of had that aside as something he wanted me to be on. Definitely happy I took his guidance on that.

OKP: Along those lines, are there a lot of songs with Dilla stashed in the vault somewhere?

GS: Yeah, we still have a few joints in the works or whatever. Once Dilla passed, a lot of it was kind of lost because he was kind of like a scientist about his shit. He had a weird way of stashing shit. But my man J-Rocc from the Beat Junkies has a whole lot of music that Dilla had...that's where they found "Get Wild." Actually that's how they found "Take Notice" and everything. He was going through like tons and tons of stuff and he hasn't necessarily completed going through everything. We still have like 3 or 4 songs that aren't even accounted for, actually two of ‘em were like ones that I really, really love. Hopefully we'll be able to find those other joints, we got about 4 joints on deck that people haven't even heard yet. 3 of them are just me rhyming, and 1 of them is actually Dilla rhyming on it with me. Hopefully that shit is recovered, man. I pray a lot about that. So far, so bad, but you know I'm going to stay positive.

OKP: What about working with Black Milk? What attracted you to him?

GS: Actually, it was crazy. When Dilla was alive, we were working on the Dirty District volumes, and he introduced me to Young RJ, whose one-half of BR Gunna, Black Milk being the other half. He was telling me RJ and Milk had some shit that I'd probably be interested in. So eventually I started going over to Barak [Records] and working on Dirty District, and that's where I met Black. Me and him hit it off real, real strong, so even after he left Barak I was always in touch with him because he had the crazy ass beats. And him being in the same vein, just being Detroit and being able to capture that essence of the way the beats sound [in Detroit], it was like a perfect fit. It's the same feel I have with Mr. Porter or the same as when I was fucking with Dilla, I just liked the vibe of it. Everything he sent me I was feeling. People might have to get used to that, cause me and Black gonna be working from now until I'm up out of here. It was really a good thing for me to be messing with him seeing that Dilla himself made the connection for me to meet him, it just seems like the right thing. His beats don't hurt him any either.

OKP: With the whole Detroit scene constantly growing and evolving, how does it feel to be the guy other people are looking to as representing Detroit?

GS: It feels good because...me being here everyday, being in the trenches here...it's just a blessing that people would even hold me in that regard. But at the same time, it's not like I won a lottery ticket to get in this position. It's something that I willingly accept. I'm just thankful. I really feel like if we the heads of all these Detroit people really get together, it could be some historic shit and we could do it. Its humbling, but I still have that underdog chip on that shoulder because I feel like I'm carrying the flag for Detroit and the underdogs and its time to win. And the people that I once idolize that are now basically eye-to-eye with me, all I can say is lets make sure Dilla and Proof didn't die in vain. The work is just beginning now. Not trying to exclude anybody or say Atlanta's run is over or whatever, but its time for the Motor City. It's time for us to come together.  

Stray Bullets is available for download now at www.stonesthrow.com. For more information on Guilty Simpson, visit www.stonesthrow.com/guiltysimpson and www.myspace.com/guiltysimpson.

 

- Martin Caballero