BLACKWALLSTREET ARTIST DEAD?
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- Start date
INTERVIEW OF HIS LINEUP ON HIS ALBUM
Interview
Seraphim: Thanks for taking the time to do this interview. I know you're a busy man and all, so it's greatly appreciated. I know this is your first interview, so I'm going to try to make this touch on everything.
Mastermynd: No problem, thanks for giving me the opportunity to get my message out there. To me that's what rap will always be about.
Seraphim: I know a lot of people don't know, so introduce yourself and give us a little info on you.
Mastermynd: My name is Darius Williams, through rapping I developed the name Mastermynd. I grew up in Bed-Stuy. From when I was 8 years old to when I was 16 I lived in Harlem. After that I moved back to Bed-Stuy.
Seraphim: So seeing as you grew up in Brooklyn, how did your brother come to be friends with Big L?
Mastermynd: I lived in Brooklyn my whole life, but my brother lived in Harlem. I wasn't like most kids, who had a mother but no father around. I lived with my father and my mother was no where around. My brother was 8 years older then me, so he was living on his own out in Harlem.
Seraphim: Did you see a difference between you and other kids because of how you grew up with no mother
Mastermynd: After my dad left my mom he didn't bring girls home because he didn't want to expose me to that stuff. He would spend nights at hotels and tell me he was at work, but I knew what was going on. My dad didn't have a legitimate job like that, but when I was young he tried to tell me he worked in business, but I knew the truth. My father was selling weed and sticking people up. That ain't nothing cool or anything but he was trying to keep clothes on my back and keep a roof over our heads, so I understand his intent but like the saying goes "What goes around comes around", one day my father and one of his partners was sitting in a car when someone came and tapped on the window and shot my father in the head. I guess he robbed the wrong person and that got back to him. His friend survived that day and I lived with him for a week then went to live with my brother in Harlem. I don't know where my mother is, last time I saw her was when I was 6 years old. My mother and my father got in an argument because my father came home late and she was worried I guess. Had my mother been around I don't know how I'd be different, but personally I don't care. I assume my mother OD'd, I don't know why I think that, I just do.
Seraphim: Damn, I'm sorry to hear about all that. So what was it like growing up with your brother. When was the first time you met Big L?
Mastermynd: I went to live with my brother when he I was 8 years old. He had a nicer apartment then my dad did and he was only 16. He was cool to me, he made sure I always had clothes on my back. He wasn't home much. The first time I met Lamont was the same week I moved in with my brother. Him and my brother brought these two girls home and I can still remember the look L gave me when he first saw me. He didn't know what an 8 year old was doing in my brothers apartment. I remember at first I didn't like him because he told me to go back to my room and I was thinking "Damn why he telling me to get out of the living room when he doesn't even live here?".
Seraphim: Now how old were you when you, your brother and Big L all started to hang out together.
Mastermynd: Lamont was 10 years older then me, so it wasn't like I was hanging out with Lamont, it was just that I was always with my brother and my brother was with L a lot and I was pretty mature for my age so I was always included in conversations. Big L got me my first real girlfriend. I was 14 and we was at a party and a lot of people were smoking weed, drinking, and stuff and L pointed out this girl who was my age and told me to go talk to her and me and that girl were together for almost a year, I'm always going to remember that girl.
Seraphim: What made you want to start rapping?
Mastermynd: Actually it was Big L, when he was with a group of people there would sometimes be people that would want to battle him. So after the first few times I started thinking up cool rhymes and one day someone stepped to L in a disrespectful way and you could just hear the jealousy in his choice of words. He was obviously jealous that L had an album out and he didn't . The only reason this dude stepped to L was because he was jealous, not because he had wanted to show his skills.. I still remember the last few bars from L "How'd you get down with my crew/You shoulda knew I'm not the person to come up to/You threw, I'mma let the kid finish you" Then he turn to me and said "Son there's your q" and I just spit those rhymes I been thinking up over the past week and L was like "You just ripped him apart, keep at it you gonna be good". From there I started battling some kids that were closer to my age and I did good. It was just a little over a year ago that I started writing. I never had a single job I just battled people for money. So every dollar I earned came from rap.
Seraphim: Who are your biggest influences?
Mastermynd: I don't think anybody influences my music, it's just my own style. My favorite rappers are Tupac Shakur, Big L, Ice Cube, Kool G Rap, Big Pun, Method Man, and Nas. I listen to a lot of rap though, a lot of underground artist from all over. I listen to everything, even if it's not rap. I listen to Rick James, Michael Jackson, Marvin Gaye, Rockwell, and so on.
Seraphim: How did you get signed to G-Unit?
Mastermynd: I had a friend who knew 50 Cent, and he introduced me to him. I gave my demo to him, which had one song on it, "3 the Hard Way". I recorded that song with some free studio time and that was the only song I had. So I put it on a demo and handed it to 50 and he played it and he liked it. So I ended up as a hype man for a few of Hot Rod's shows and Hot Rod.
Seraphim: Why did you hit 50 Cent?
Mastermynd: 50 Cent got knocked out because he thought he was playing me. Like he thought I didn't know that my deal wasn't good. The deal was I'd get $35,000 and 3% of my sales and I'd make no albums just mixtapes - 25 mixtapes in 18 months.. People be like "Why did you accept the deal if you knew it wasn't good". If you were in my situation you would to. I had $9 to my name, I was living in a small apartment that had no furniture, I was sleeping on a concrete floor. The only thing that was in my apartment was a small TV, no cable, a phone line, an old laptop with a dial-up connection and a stack of AOL demo discs. So coming from the gutter $35,000 looked really good to me. I was also given a credit card with a high limit and 50 Cent told me to get some clothes and jewelry. I didn't know that I would have to pay all the money I spent back. So next time I saw 50 Cent I was told I owed a lot of money and then argument broke out and words between me and 50 were exchanged and I threw a single punch and knocked him out. As soon as he hit the ground a swarm of bodyguards are already stomping me out. I was only on G-Unit for a few weeks and with the little studio time I was given I recorded 12 tracks and all of the masters were thrown away. I swear though, I'm thinking of retiring because of all the people asking me about that. I've had to explain this situation so many times, people be coming up to me like "I heard you knocked 50 Cent out". I don't even want to hear a single person ask me about this again. So I'm grateful for this interview, from now on when ever anyone asks me I'm going to tell them to go to your site and read this.
Seraphim: How did you end up getting shot 7 times.
Mastermynd: It was October 8th, just a few days after I left G-Unit I got a call from a G-Unit member and he asked to meet up with him and write some tracks for him. I drove there because I had no problems with this member and I got to the place and parked the car. I started walking to the door and the shooter got out of a car that was parked across the street. He ran halfway across the street and he raised the gun, I didn't see any of it started firing shots. I heard 2 shots before the first one hit me, then 6 shots hit me in the stomach and 1 in the thigh. Then the shooter got back in his car and drove off. I passed out a few seconds after hitting the ground. Next thing I know I'm in the hospital. I woke up from a coma on October 13th, which was Friday the 13th.
Seraphim: After you hit the ground did you expect to live?
Mastermynd: To tell you the truth I wasn't thinking about it, I wasn't thinking about anything. I was just looking up at the sky with a bunch of things passing through my mind. Then like you know how when your really tired your eyes just start to close? I just slowly closed my eyes. I don't even know who got me to the hospital.
Seraphim: What happened after you left the hospital?
Mastermynd: I just stayed home taking pain medication, and sleeping. After awhile I realized that Blueberry was working better then the pain medication, so I just started smoking Blueberry instead. On the second disc of my album there is a track called "Blueberry" which is a tribute to the Blueberry strain of marijuana. After a few days I started getting death threats.
Seraphim: How did you get signed to Black Wall Street and what made you want to sign to Black Wall Street?
Mastermynd: I was contacted by Vern Cambridge he told me I was going to be flown out to California. I signed because I Game believed in me and he's real cool. He didn't offer me no bullshit deal, there was no discussion over the deal it was just a good deal and I accepted it. It's not just business neither, he's a friend and his friends are my friends.
Seraphim: What can we expect from your first album?
Mastermynd: The name of the album is Oraculum. A lot of people don't know what it means, but you will understand in the near future. It's going to be the first double disc debut album in rap history. It's 27 classic tracks this albums bringing back hip-hop to where is should be. There's just no way that people will be able to keep putting out the wack shit that's coming out now and still compete. The fans just aren't going to want to hear it. There's a whole generation of rap fans that have yet to hear good music on the radio. So I'm bringing that back. Some of the artist on this album have recorded their verses at no cost at all, just because they support it and they want to save hip-hop. I'm saving hip-hop with my album, there's people who are trying to soften hip-hop. It's not the rappers fault that the music is garbage, if they try talking real shit they get doors slammed in their face, there's a song on my album called "Exodus" and that's what the whole song is about. Consider my album to be the Noah's Arc of rap, if your not on it then your career is going to die. I'm turning rap around. I got a track called "Hip-Hop Revelation" and that song is going to clean rap up. The Game, Papoose, Ice Cube, Mos Def, Nas, Talib Kweli, Ja Rule, Method Man, Redman, Snoop Dogg, Rakim, Fat Joe, Jadakiss, Immortal Technique, MC Shan, Nate Dogg, Akon, and my girl Nicole Kea are all on my album and most of them aren't doing it for money, a lot of them are doing it for free or at a discounted price, whether it be for the love or hip-hop or because they want to be on a classic album. I also got a song with Big L on it, it's got never two before heard verses from Big L. Then I got two tracks with Eazy-E, "Stick-Up 101" and "Fat Pockets". They both feature two never before heard verses from Eazy-E. The producers are Just Blaze, Scott Storch, Timbaland, Swizz Beatz, DJ Premier, Hi-Tek, RZA, Quan-O, LQD, Emile and Hurt M Badd and that's where most of the budget went. There's also "Guerilla Warfare" which is one of the best diss tracks in years. It's all real, and nobody's got as much dirt on G-Unit then I do. I played a short clip few lines of it to some people and they were amazed begging for more. I guarantee this track will destroy G-Unit, it's got commercial appeal and drops names.
"Don't say you sold dimes
Say you snitched on crimes
You got shot 3 times
Don't say 9 in your rhymes
You instigate, I display my fire-rate
You get irate, I don't debate
I initiate, defenestrate, I desecrate .
You contemplate, I demonstrate
How my bullets penetrate"
Interview
Seraphim: Thanks for taking the time to do this interview. I know you're a busy man and all, so it's greatly appreciated. I know this is your first interview, so I'm going to try to make this touch on everything.
Mastermynd: No problem, thanks for giving me the opportunity to get my message out there. To me that's what rap will always be about.
Seraphim: I know a lot of people don't know, so introduce yourself and give us a little info on you.
Mastermynd: My name is Darius Williams, through rapping I developed the name Mastermynd. I grew up in Bed-Stuy. From when I was 8 years old to when I was 16 I lived in Harlem. After that I moved back to Bed-Stuy.
Seraphim: So seeing as you grew up in Brooklyn, how did your brother come to be friends with Big L?
Mastermynd: I lived in Brooklyn my whole life, but my brother lived in Harlem. I wasn't like most kids, who had a mother but no father around. I lived with my father and my mother was no where around. My brother was 8 years older then me, so he was living on his own out in Harlem.
Seraphim: Did you see a difference between you and other kids because of how you grew up with no mother
Mastermynd: After my dad left my mom he didn't bring girls home because he didn't want to expose me to that stuff. He would spend nights at hotels and tell me he was at work, but I knew what was going on. My dad didn't have a legitimate job like that, but when I was young he tried to tell me he worked in business, but I knew the truth. My father was selling weed and sticking people up. That ain't nothing cool or anything but he was trying to keep clothes on my back and keep a roof over our heads, so I understand his intent but like the saying goes "What goes around comes around", one day my father and one of his partners was sitting in a car when someone came and tapped on the window and shot my father in the head. I guess he robbed the wrong person and that got back to him. His friend survived that day and I lived with him for a week then went to live with my brother in Harlem. I don't know where my mother is, last time I saw her was when I was 6 years old. My mother and my father got in an argument because my father came home late and she was worried I guess. Had my mother been around I don't know how I'd be different, but personally I don't care. I assume my mother OD'd, I don't know why I think that, I just do.
Seraphim: Damn, I'm sorry to hear about all that. So what was it like growing up with your brother. When was the first time you met Big L?
Mastermynd: I went to live with my brother when he I was 8 years old. He had a nicer apartment then my dad did and he was only 16. He was cool to me, he made sure I always had clothes on my back. He wasn't home much. The first time I met Lamont was the same week I moved in with my brother. Him and my brother brought these two girls home and I can still remember the look L gave me when he first saw me. He didn't know what an 8 year old was doing in my brothers apartment. I remember at first I didn't like him because he told me to go back to my room and I was thinking "Damn why he telling me to get out of the living room when he doesn't even live here?".
Seraphim: Now how old were you when you, your brother and Big L all started to hang out together.
Mastermynd: Lamont was 10 years older then me, so it wasn't like I was hanging out with Lamont, it was just that I was always with my brother and my brother was with L a lot and I was pretty mature for my age so I was always included in conversations. Big L got me my first real girlfriend. I was 14 and we was at a party and a lot of people were smoking weed, drinking, and stuff and L pointed out this girl who was my age and told me to go talk to her and me and that girl were together for almost a year, I'm always going to remember that girl.
Seraphim: What made you want to start rapping?
Mastermynd: Actually it was Big L, when he was with a group of people there would sometimes be people that would want to battle him. So after the first few times I started thinking up cool rhymes and one day someone stepped to L in a disrespectful way and you could just hear the jealousy in his choice of words. He was obviously jealous that L had an album out and he didn't . The only reason this dude stepped to L was because he was jealous, not because he had wanted to show his skills.. I still remember the last few bars from L "How'd you get down with my crew/You shoulda knew I'm not the person to come up to/You threw, I'mma let the kid finish you" Then he turn to me and said "Son there's your q" and I just spit those rhymes I been thinking up over the past week and L was like "You just ripped him apart, keep at it you gonna be good". From there I started battling some kids that were closer to my age and I did good. It was just a little over a year ago that I started writing. I never had a single job I just battled people for money. So every dollar I earned came from rap.
Seraphim: Who are your biggest influences?
Mastermynd: I don't think anybody influences my music, it's just my own style. My favorite rappers are Tupac Shakur, Big L, Ice Cube, Kool G Rap, Big Pun, Method Man, and Nas. I listen to a lot of rap though, a lot of underground artist from all over. I listen to everything, even if it's not rap. I listen to Rick James, Michael Jackson, Marvin Gaye, Rockwell, and so on.
Seraphim: How did you get signed to G-Unit?
Mastermynd: I had a friend who knew 50 Cent, and he introduced me to him. I gave my demo to him, which had one song on it, "3 the Hard Way". I recorded that song with some free studio time and that was the only song I had. So I put it on a demo and handed it to 50 and he played it and he liked it. So I ended up as a hype man for a few of Hot Rod's shows and Hot Rod.
Seraphim: Why did you hit 50 Cent?
Mastermynd: 50 Cent got knocked out because he thought he was playing me. Like he thought I didn't know that my deal wasn't good. The deal was I'd get $35,000 and 3% of my sales and I'd make no albums just mixtapes - 25 mixtapes in 18 months.. People be like "Why did you accept the deal if you knew it wasn't good". If you were in my situation you would to. I had $9 to my name, I was living in a small apartment that had no furniture, I was sleeping on a concrete floor. The only thing that was in my apartment was a small TV, no cable, a phone line, an old laptop with a dial-up connection and a stack of AOL demo discs. So coming from the gutter $35,000 looked really good to me. I was also given a credit card with a high limit and 50 Cent told me to get some clothes and jewelry. I didn't know that I would have to pay all the money I spent back. So next time I saw 50 Cent I was told I owed a lot of money and then argument broke out and words between me and 50 were exchanged and I threw a single punch and knocked him out. As soon as he hit the ground a swarm of bodyguards are already stomping me out. I was only on G-Unit for a few weeks and with the little studio time I was given I recorded 12 tracks and all of the masters were thrown away. I swear though, I'm thinking of retiring because of all the people asking me about that. I've had to explain this situation so many times, people be coming up to me like "I heard you knocked 50 Cent out". I don't even want to hear a single person ask me about this again. So I'm grateful for this interview, from now on when ever anyone asks me I'm going to tell them to go to your site and read this.
Seraphim: How did you end up getting shot 7 times.
Mastermynd: It was October 8th, just a few days after I left G-Unit I got a call from a G-Unit member and he asked to meet up with him and write some tracks for him. I drove there because I had no problems with this member and I got to the place and parked the car. I started walking to the door and the shooter got out of a car that was parked across the street. He ran halfway across the street and he raised the gun, I didn't see any of it started firing shots. I heard 2 shots before the first one hit me, then 6 shots hit me in the stomach and 1 in the thigh. Then the shooter got back in his car and drove off. I passed out a few seconds after hitting the ground. Next thing I know I'm in the hospital. I woke up from a coma on October 13th, which was Friday the 13th.
Seraphim: After you hit the ground did you expect to live?
Mastermynd: To tell you the truth I wasn't thinking about it, I wasn't thinking about anything. I was just looking up at the sky with a bunch of things passing through my mind. Then like you know how when your really tired your eyes just start to close? I just slowly closed my eyes. I don't even know who got me to the hospital.
Seraphim: What happened after you left the hospital?
Mastermynd: I just stayed home taking pain medication, and sleeping. After awhile I realized that Blueberry was working better then the pain medication, so I just started smoking Blueberry instead. On the second disc of my album there is a track called "Blueberry" which is a tribute to the Blueberry strain of marijuana. After a few days I started getting death threats.
Seraphim: How did you get signed to Black Wall Street and what made you want to sign to Black Wall Street?
Mastermynd: I was contacted by Vern Cambridge he told me I was going to be flown out to California. I signed because I Game believed in me and he's real cool. He didn't offer me no bullshit deal, there was no discussion over the deal it was just a good deal and I accepted it. It's not just business neither, he's a friend and his friends are my friends.
Seraphim: What can we expect from your first album?
Mastermynd: The name of the album is Oraculum. A lot of people don't know what it means, but you will understand in the near future. It's going to be the first double disc debut album in rap history. It's 27 classic tracks this albums bringing back hip-hop to where is should be. There's just no way that people will be able to keep putting out the wack shit that's coming out now and still compete. The fans just aren't going to want to hear it. There's a whole generation of rap fans that have yet to hear good music on the radio. So I'm bringing that back. Some of the artist on this album have recorded their verses at no cost at all, just because they support it and they want to save hip-hop. I'm saving hip-hop with my album, there's people who are trying to soften hip-hop. It's not the rappers fault that the music is garbage, if they try talking real shit they get doors slammed in their face, there's a song on my album called "Exodus" and that's what the whole song is about. Consider my album to be the Noah's Arc of rap, if your not on it then your career is going to die. I'm turning rap around. I got a track called "Hip-Hop Revelation" and that song is going to clean rap up. The Game, Papoose, Ice Cube, Mos Def, Nas, Talib Kweli, Ja Rule, Method Man, Redman, Snoop Dogg, Rakim, Fat Joe, Jadakiss, Immortal Technique, MC Shan, Nate Dogg, Akon, and my girl Nicole Kea are all on my album and most of them aren't doing it for money, a lot of them are doing it for free or at a discounted price, whether it be for the love or hip-hop or because they want to be on a classic album. I also got a song with Big L on it, it's got never two before heard verses from Big L. Then I got two tracks with Eazy-E, "Stick-Up 101" and "Fat Pockets". They both feature two never before heard verses from Eazy-E. The producers are Just Blaze, Scott Storch, Timbaland, Swizz Beatz, DJ Premier, Hi-Tek, RZA, Quan-O, LQD, Emile and Hurt M Badd and that's where most of the budget went. There's also "Guerilla Warfare" which is one of the best diss tracks in years. It's all real, and nobody's got as much dirt on G-Unit then I do. I played a short clip few lines of it to some people and they were amazed begging for more. I guarantee this track will destroy G-Unit, it's got commercial appeal and drops names.
"Don't say you sold dimes
Say you snitched on crimes
You got shot 3 times
Don't say 9 in your rhymes
You instigate, I display my fire-rate
You get irate, I don't debate
I initiate, defenestrate, I desecrate .
You contemplate, I demonstrate
How my bullets penetrate"
