The picture above is from a 2004 Killed In Action Show. The Catalyst is the guy standing on a table looking angry.
Anyway its 08, and his new mixtape, Fuck The Radio, is an instant classic. Dood has the voice and patterns of someone from the Rakim school. Bo has the humor and shock value of Big L and Eminem. He has the relevance of a T.I. or Wayne. And he can make social commentary like Rass Kass or Canibus. And he delivers it all with the clarity of Ludacris.
Sucks I put such a silly looking photo of him up there, huh. Cause dood could easily be the next great. Plus he reps the O-H, like iono, John Kasich. Anyway him and I got drunk and I documented the conversation. I am gonna completely misrepresent him by posting said interaction.
(The Catalyst will be performing tonight @ Cafe Bourbon Street. DJ Top Speed from Indy will be performing as well.)
Wes Flexner:Who is a bigger wigger Envelope or Copywrite?
The Catalyst:(Laughs)Definitely Pete(Copywrite). If I didn’t know Tony(Envelope) I wouldn’t be able to tell he even listened to rap on first impression.
WF:Why are you so fond of hanging out with wiggers?
TC:Cuz half of me is a huge wigger. The black side of me is an oreo. He’s comparable to that of Bryant Gumbel.The white side of me is a West Side Hilltop Resident with bangs.
WF:How does the blackside manifest itself?
TC:Through attempting to rap and occasionally smoking Newports while drunk.
WF:That doesnt sound like Byrant Gumble?
TC:Well see… that’s where it gets complex.the black side manifests itself through the white wigger. Cuz the black side isn’t black at all.The black side reads the Wall Street Journal while drinking lots of milk.And listening to Abba. And it has good credit.
WF:There seems to be a pressure on artists especially in hip hop to promote positivity. Does art have a moral responsibility?
TC:Which I understand to an extent. There is a lack of responsibility being taken… and the overabundance of negativity is unrealistic… However… Completely censoring something and taking out all negative aspects is equally absurd I don’t think art has a moral responsibility per se… Nobody is required to do anything they don’t want to do.
But if you want to have a clear conscious you should probably try to balance what you create with something redeeming in value.
WF:Do you think black artists are held to an accountability to their community that white artists arent?
TC: Yea that’s possible… For example take O’reilly’s various attacks on rappers with endorsements from major corporations… Yet a figure like Ozzy Osbourne can keep his Pepsi Endorsement intact without as much as a complaint. But on the flipside… The ratio between positive/negative in the world of black entertainment versus that of white… Is probably more off kilter.
WF:What do you think of Nas calling his album the n word?
TC: I don’t understand the hype first of all. I’m surprised after the overuse of the word for the past couple decades it’s still striking a chord with people. You see movies now with white people saying nigger as a gag now. And the entire crowd laughs
WF:Well its because of the Imus situation.
TC: I feel that certain leaders just feel forced to have to take an objective stance so they can look like they’re doing something. Imus being a white man making derogatory racial statements doesn’t seem to relate to Nas being a black man calling his own album nigger. And for the record imus was blown out of proportion
WF:But basically they are using Imus’ defense of his comment because rappers do it.
TC: And Sacha Cohen makes fun of Jews. He’s Jewish. Fat comedians make Fat jokes
It’s not just a black people being able to say nigger issue.
WF:I just have one more question..and I think we are done.
TC: Can I say Nigger more and have it printed?
WF:White people are terrified of the nword. Half of them would rather say it than have sex or win 1 milllion dollars. So they can’t be around it. Because its too tempting. The other half think that hearing the word makes them klansmen.
WF:The song greed. Whats the concept of that song
TC:Me just rhyming from the standpoint of the concept of greed personified.
WF:Seems like you reference religion in that song
TC:I do. It gave me an excuse to show my hate for religion real fast
WF:Whats the relationship between greed and religion?
TC:It’s kind of a stretch… I could probably find more ways they correlate then the one example used in the song. but the way i see it… The powers that be find it desirable for the masses to follow religions. It keeps them complacent. They can continue to take and take and do what they want without fear of retaliation. Cuz the adherents of religious beliefs won’t do anything to change it.for one they don’t believe their true happiness lies here on earth… And they believe it would be a sin to use force anyways.
WF:what was the religious make up of your home again?
TC:Methodist, Agnostic, Muslim/former Nation Of Islam , Bahai, and Jehovah Witness
WF: Do you believe in a mystery god?
TC: Not at all. But i’m also not an atheist. Best term to describe is probably “deist”
I find it likely there is a larger force at work… but for one… it’s not something you can describe as “he”. God wouldn’t have genitals to give him a gender classification. And God is definitely indifferent to the state of our existence
God is probably a force in the same veign as something along the lines of gravity .Just more powerful and all encompassing
WF:I kinda believe God is the sum of things but nothing more or less
TC: That would also make an equal amount of sense. I could see that .I got real weird elaborate theories that are too long to even go into right now.
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