Memphis Bleek & Beanie Sigel – between shopping and getting dressed

 Location: A hotel in Zurich, Switzerland, Europe. Time: 5.30 p.m. Action: Waiting…

Rumor has it that the Roc-A-Fella Family checked in half an hour ago. Well, it’s not only a rumor, it’s more than that, and I have an interview appointment with two of the guys (at least from their tour manager), but since they had to come here from Italy by bus and it was snowing on their way, it took the whole Dynasty more time and their trip had to have  been not that good. And as far as myself was concernedI was pretty sure the guys were in bad moods… Time: 5:35 p.m. Action: Still waiting…? No! All of a sudden, I see two guys coming in, one guy with a doo-rag and one big boy – both carrying four pairs of sneakers they just bought, and I somehow thought I’d recognize them. One Brooklyn cat and one reasonable rapper from Philly – Memph and Beans. With a better mood due to the successful shopping, they let me ask them my questions. And since they received some herbal pleasure by post, everything was fine. Your browser does not support inline frames or is currently configured not to display inline frames. SPAN>

Sixshot: What made you guys wanna be MCs?

Memphis Bleek: For me, Bleek, being me, I started rhymin’ when I felt the way I needed to express certain things that I just couldn’t do by just talkin’ to somebody straight up, you know what I mean? So I felt, makin’ rhythm with it, just started writing down, first started with poetry just writin’ in my little book, you know what I mean? The next you know I started rhymin’. The next you know I just said hey I can do this, I’m that good at this, I can do this for a career, you know what I’m sayin’?

Beanie Sigel: To be an MC… I don’t know, I liked that people’s face expressions, like, them feeling the words that I put together, you know what I mean. And they be telling me like, yeah, you be really doin’ it, so I was like, whatever. But when I met them, the ROC, Bleek and them, I rapped for them and they gave me that response, yo Beans, it’s hot, I couldn’t believe I had a gift or something for rapping, ‘cause I never thought about rapping, man…

Were there like any idols or was there someone who impressed you that much, so were like, I wanna be like this guy?

Sigel (singing): Mister, Mister Scarface. I was Scarface-crazy man. That’s all I listened to this phase.

Bleek: I was Big Daddy Kane and Rakim-crazy!

Supercrazy?

Bleek: Definitely man. It was Kane, Rakim, and KR, KRS 1, man!

Sigel: KR was the truth!

Bleek: Yeah!

Sigel sings a KRS 1 hook, everybody laughing. In the meanwhile, the two had lit a j, and they were even easier than in the beginning.

 Both of you guys are down-to-earth and got that particular street style and so on. Was being an MC also a way out of the hustle? Was it a business option kinda or was it just a game on the street that sooner or later turned out to be a job option?

Sigel: Definitely for Sigel. I was like, What?, it was like the matrix man, it was like picking the red or the green pill. I was so caught into the street, I was like, I was lookin’ for a new hustle, you know what I mean, and then it was like, when I decided that I didn’t wanna be in the streets no more, and I was honest with myself, it was like, it came to me…

 But it wasn’t the intention to become filthy rich rappin’ at first, was it? It was first the game and then the job option, wasn’t it?

Bleek: It became a business for me once my best friend Jay [Jay-Z] bought a record label. At first it was all fun for me, like, I was going to little talent shows, everything for fun. I could tell you some of the things I been through that this room won’t even believe but I’ve been there, like, shows, being in the streets for real like that’s when I rap, I tell you what I see. What I see or what I been through or my friends, I can’t tell you something that I don’t know.

 And that was your intention? Like, telling everyone what you’ve seen? ‘Cause good rappers get filthy rich nowadays, was that your goal?

Bleek: It was rapping at first, it wasn’t about the money.

Sigel interrupting: That’s what I think is wrong with the game now. It’s about the money now

Bleek: People don’t just have fun with the words anymore.

That’s what I was trying to ask The Clipse three hours ago. I don’t blame any producers that are hot as the Neptunes. But right now, you can’t hear like any album without them doing anything on it. This summer, you had like 30 hot tracks done by them. It’s a reproduction.

Bleek: When you hear my album “Made”, in April, ain’t no Neptunes on it or whatever. (laughing)

Sigel: That ain’t even no disrespect to like the hottest producers out there though, the Pharrells, the Timbalands, the Dres and stuff, but for us, we believe that everything comes from the essence, you know what I mean, so we go find us producers, that’s hot like a Just Blaze or a Kanye West. We gave them producers they first look, they first chance, like, back when wasn’t on somebody gave us a chance. I just got beats from some cats called the neckbones, you probably will hear of ‘em after my album comes out, but they are just regular cats as us.

 Beanie, why did you actually move to New York, was that a private decision?

Sigel: No, I went there for business. When I was just rapping, I was still in Philly, I was catching a train back and forth to New York. I’m more than just a rapper right now, I have my own companies, and it’s easier for me to get back and forth to the buildings.

Beanie, I read in your biography that you love the attention, especially when the kids know your rhymes ‘causes this proves you that you made it. Is this a fact you started rhyming? I mean is it an inner will or more the seek for feedback, for attention, for limelight?

Bleek: It’s an inner feeling for me, like, if people was not cheering, I’d still be writing down what I feel. But being that they all cheering and the fans is happy to see us, it just makes me work harder and more, you know what I am saying? Like, if they like this they gonna like this, ‘cause it’s even deeper performed, that’s how I look at it.

Sigel: I try to put a lesson in every rap that I do, no matter what I’m talkin’ about. I you really listen to my music, it’s always a lesson. I get the feedback from those that catch the lesson. iWant raps that are not so caught up by the beat, like, so the people really understand what you’re saying.

 That’s hard for certain people like us, sometimes, ‘cause we can’t always relate to what you guys are saying. Not only as far as the money is concerned, but also as far as the city, the hood, life is concerned.

Bleek: And then again it’s good, it’s learning lesson for you too, you don’t see it you don’t experience it, but then when you travel to the States, you know about it so you gonna watch out for it.

Sigel: It’s like that everwhere though, like, everywhere goes a hardship. And everywhere’s a struggle, the environmnent you come may intensify it. If you’re from a town where everyone is rich, everybody has money, everyone is related to someone with money, well, your problem is that you might not get the clothes out of the cleaners in time. But if you’re from where everybody’s struggling, you know what I mean, that’s just normal. People lookin’ at us and sayin’, damn, they’re really going through it, that’s just unnormal for us, so it’s regular. And then there is people that have a harder struggle than we have.

 Memphis: You already appeared on Jay-Z’s first album, released two solo efforts, but still, Jay-Z says “Time will come, you’re one hit away!” [on the song “The Blueprint” off Jay-Z’s album “The Blueprint”]. How’s that to be considered? Sales figures? Attention?

Memphis: I guess to him it’s the sales or the attention, like, everything I do, I make a little bit but then they find something to backlash me, you know what I’m saying? Like you say how you always hear Neptunes, and Timbaland. I can’t get a beat from that type of guys unless I get Jay-Z to do a song with them. Say like, I come to you, I’ll be like let me do this interview with you, you’re like, naw, I can’t interview you, I’ll interview you after you get Jay-Z to do an interview with me. It’s like that, people knowin that I grew up with Jay and that he’s like a brother to me they think that talking to me, they can get him. That’s why he tells me,don’t worry about, you’re just one hit away, do what you do. Do your own thing, don’t let them confuse you.

 Being on the roster of the arguably best rapper’s label gives you a lot of opportunity, but people also expect something from you guys? Is it a gift or is it a curse?

Sigel and Bleek together: It’s both.

 ‘Cause I often hear people like, damn, Beans is hot, damn, Bleek is hot, but you’re still somehow someway the sidekicks of the arguably hottest rapper out there.

Bleek: You know what? That makes it easier than it makes it hard, you know what I’m saying? ‘Cause now we gotta work harder. Jay-Z the best, I wanna be the best one day, Bleek the best, Sigel wanna be the best one day. Right now, we know, he’s the best, so we working that we’re better than him.

Yeah, but it’s still the shadow.

Bleek: Yeah, I don’t care. It’s like family, he’s like an older brother to me. Besides, he gave me the chance to come out of the ghetto, I could never turn my back on that.

No, it’s not like you should turn your back on that, it’s just an eternal comparison with the best rapper, and since you guys are on the same label, it makes it even clearer and harder.

Bleek: Well, I don’t care, they can’t compare us. You can’t compare Bleek to Jay- to Sigel and back. We’re all different. We’re our own men.

 You guys been on tour in Europe right now. Is this the first time you been here?

Bleek: No, it’s my second time, first time in Switzerland, but the second time I am here. Three years ago we’ve been to that parade in Germany. We landed in Frankfurt and went to Cologne.

 How do you feel about the crowd?

Bleek: It’s weird to me ‘cause a lot of people, like, it let me know how strong music has become and how strong music is. You know, there’s a lot of people that don’t even know English and they…

(interrupting) That's what I mean! Other American artists told me that they love the feeling here ‘cause they’re really an event and people love them for coming by unlike America where hip hop heavyweights at clubs are a standard type of thing…

Sigel: The crowd is crazy. When we first came here it was just me and Bleek. I was crazy nervous ‘cause I thought it would be a show where people just come listen to the music. But they was feeling it, like, the people that come they know you and they want to see you perform.

Bleek: We’re not here all the time, that’s why we are an event somehow. I wish we’d always be here, man. Get more promoters to book us we’d be here all the time, I love it over here.

Future Projects?

Bleek: An album, titled “Made”. I chose that title for a lot of different reasons. I made moves, I made best friends, I made mistakes, I made myself a family, I made the album too, man. That’s what happened in the meanwhile. It be out in April (laughing).

 And you, Beanie?

Sigel (hesitating, then acting like a lil’ kid when someone takes his toy away): Bleek took my April date.

(Laughing all over the room.)

Sigel: So I’ll be out in May, I’ll come in May. The album ain’t titled yet, well, I’m a name it “The Movement”. The movement is all I’m bringing to the table, I’m bringing that raw hip hop back, you know, me and Freeway, some State Property cats, Oschino & Sparks, Chris & Neef, Peeedi Crakk, just a squad, a team that moves out.

 Thank you guys very much for the interview, and, well, give us a great show, okay?

Bleek & Sigel: No doubt, man, for real!

And so they did: A couple of hours later, the guys appeared on stage, dressed in all new, all filthy Roc-a-Wear clothes and represented the ROC together with Jay-Z. It was one of the most professional shows I’ve seen in Switzerland up to now as far as rap is concerned. And the two sidekicks that were on stage with Jigga, well, they also managed to step out of the big man’s shadow every now and then. And there will be a time when this happens not only on stage.