TSS Presents 15 Minutes With Consequence

"Fifteen Minutes With..."    By Gotty™ on January 31, 2007 at 9:02 am

“I don’t wanna ever go back there…So I won’t be takin’ no days off ’til my spaceship takes off”

No truer words have been spoken. Making his first true appearance on wax in 1996 on A Tribe Called Quest’s Beats Rhymes and Life, Consequence’s debut album, Don’t Quit Your Day Job (GOOD Music/Columbia Records) has been a long time in the making. And with March 6 fast approaching, the gifted storyteller with a knack for conveying realism in his music is set to have his turn to shine. We had a chance to catch up with the Queens’ native recently and had him let fans know what to expect from the album.

TSS Presents 15 Minutes With Consequence

Words By Chris “Preach” Smith

TSS: What’s up, man?

Cons: What up man, what’s poppin’ ?

TSS: Aint nothin’, aint nothin’. Ready to do this?

Cons: Yeah.

TSS: First question – the new album. How much love have you been gettin’ from it, based on advance reviews?

Cons: I played it for a few people and they really get into it, and really enjoy it. I think the message speaks for itself with the way it’s configured. It’s set up like a, if you had to put it in a category, like a mid ‘90’s album. A concept album. And so, there’s no straight random record that pops out of nowhere, like, ‘this shit don’t make no sense!’ You know what I’m sayin’? I think a lot of people relate to it, I think a lot of people who I played it for, not so much industry people where it’s like they just listen to listen, but people who spend their money on records and appreciate it ‘cause it speaks to them.

TSS: Right, right.

Cons: In those terms, it’s like the first record is “The Job Song”, which kinda goes through the whole experience of, uh, presentin’ yourself in front of somebody that’s gonna interview you and potentially give you a job. Y’know, the nervous feelings you get and the whole going through the classified ads that we’ve all had to go through to, you know, make ends meet. “Damn man, I need a job man, I don’ know if I wanna get out there and hustle, I don’t know what I wanna do. Lemme look in the paper an’ see if there’s some shit – lemme start makin’ my calls an’ see if I can figure out a way to make some paper.”

TSS: I hear that.

Cons: So, the record kicks off like that. Then you got records like “Don’t Forget ‘Em” and “Uptown”. And the skits themselves, the stories I’m tryin’ to tell are like, me bein’ 18 or 19, maybe fresh outta high school, at the crossroads. You’re still like honing in on what your dream is – but you still gotta have a job. ‘Cause you livin’ at home. In the confines of the skit on the album, I’m livin’ at home with my moms an’ she a single mother. And so, I come home and tell her, “Hey mom, hey mom guess what I got a job!” and she’s like, “Aw man you got a job?! Good, guess I don’t gotta give you no house money for the bus no more!!”(laughs) As I tell my mom the exciting news that I got a job, I tell her Im’a still go to the studio and do what I wanna do, what I think is ultimately gonna be my career, she’s like, “That’s all well and good…” – your moms is never gonna tell you straight out you aint gonna make it- she’s like “Aight, just make sure you on time for your job in the morning ‘cause bills are real.”

TSS: Yeah. So with you discussing stuff like that, how important do you feel it is to put that on your album in contrast to what’s out there on other cat’s albums?

Cons: I felt that it was so important to put that on my album that I spent my own money – y’know, it was several times that this album wasn’t gonna come out. By all means necessary I made sure that it did. And I made sure that it was gonna be presented in the light that it needs to be ‘cause it was so close to home, this aint nothin’ I’m frontin’ about, this aint nothin’ I’m makin’ up, this is shit that I lived. And these are some of the things that’ll haunt you or fuel your movement. So, I was not gonna let it haunt me anymore. I felt there was so many people that had in some way, shape or form been in the position I was in. And whether it’s turned out negative or positive, it’s something that’s touched a person before. And so I felt not just for my own self, not for my own career, but for people who never had anybody speak on that experience…you gotta think, like at one time a homeless person was doin’ something in society that was worth talkin’ about or they was an active member of society. And all it takes is a few pitfalls for you to be assed out in America, you know what I’m sayin’?

TSS: You’re right about that.

Cons: I’m pretty sure somebody went through the whole process of goin’ through the paper to find a job and maybe they aint find a job. And so..is this album gonna turn around poverty and end the homeless problem? No. But it may get somebody through it, that somebody’s been where you been, rappin’. Or they’re not ashamed to say that they’ve been there, so many people are ashamed to say the negative or not even the negative, just the misfortunes they suffered in livin’ life. And I’m not afraid to examine that and I’m not afraid of making myself vulnerable…yeah, I’ve been fucked up before, y’know what I’m sayin’? I’ve been in a situation where it wasn’t ballin’, I wasn’t nowhere near ballin’, nigga it wasn’t even dribblin’. (laughs) Shit…but to come out of that and be able to say somethin’ that’s like.. yo, for real, if you really put your time and your energy in the shit that’s worth puttin’ it into, you can achieve somethin’. That’s what the “Don’t Quit Your Day Job” shit really stands for. It’s like, when I wasn’t doin’ what I was s’psosed to be doin’, things weren’t happenin’ right for me. When I focused and I got it in the way I needed to get it in, I concentrated on essentially what is my day job ‘cause its been my job ever since I had a job, rappin’. So when I concentrated on it and made it my number one priority I saw the fruits of my labor.

TSS: All right, cool. So you got on with A Tribe Called Quest in 1996..with you being involved with rapping for all this time, how do you feel the industry has changed?

Cons: Um..I mean, depending on what comlexion of the industry you’re referring to, of course as a business it’s grown and its spawned off into so many different avenues especially with digital downloading. I mean, of course that wasn’t even nothin’, you know that wasn’t even an issue in ‘96. File sharing wasn’t an issue, y’know what I’m sayin’? Mixtapes were primarily either DJ blend tapes or just exclusives, it wasn’t where artists put out mixtapes and barcoded ‘em and so forth and so on. You know some of the things that have helped artists have hurt artists. It’s like, you can get to the world so much faster now with the use of the Internet. You can get a video on YouTube in essentially, I guess what, 15 minutes or as long as it takes you to download it. You can get to the world. You couldn’t do that before, it took a lot more word-of-mouth before and so with that, it’s a good and a bad thing. For somebody who has talent, they can get to the world and hopefully they’ll be embraced and somebody who doesn’t have talent, everybody in the world gotta hear this bullshit!(laughs).

TSS: (laughs) No doubt. So with the album, who do you got on your production team?

Cons: Well you know, Kanye did three records on here…I got Young Lord, he did the first single “Callin’ Me”, he did “Night Night.” You got K’naan…I got a lot of new, young hungry dudes on here. I got K’naan, Karriem Riggins, Deebo Springsteen, Kool-Ade from the Black Out Coalition. ‘Cause with “Don’t Quit Your Day Job”, it wasn’t about who was the producers, it was more about what was the sound and how did it fit in to the equation of the whole album we’re tryin’ to sell. It’s not about one record, it’s about the album. It’s about the message; it’s about the listening experience it’ll give somebody from beginning to end.

TSS: You mentioned earlier that people feel that the album has a mid ‘90’s feel to it. To me, your flow seems to emulate that style. Do you feel that would be an accurate description?

Cons: I mean, I think in some instances it is. People gotta understand that I’ve been rappin’ for a very long time so I know the difference between when it’s dumbed down and when it’s somebody really tryin’ to say somethin’ to you. And I think with this album I kinda went in both directions ‘cause I really wanted people to understand what I was tryin’ to say but at the same time I didn’t want anybody to confuse the fact that I’m one of the best rappers out. Not to sound like no asshole or nothin’(laughs), but uh, when approaching the record and in general, I just wanted it to sound right, I just want it to sound good. My next single, “Don’t Forget ‘Em” isn’t as lyrical let’s say as “The Good, The Bad, The Ugly” record I got. But it feels good. And I think that’s what people need to take away from the record.

TSS: Okay.

Cons: See, my thing with hip-hop is, it’s supposed to make you feel good. It’s supposed to make you feel good. So when I see somebody doin’ snap music it doesn’t offend me ‘cause they’re havin’ fun doin’ it. It’s the same way if you saw somebody breakdancin’. The same prejudices that snap music and like, snap music faces is the same thing that breakdancing’s faced back in the ‘80’s. “Ah man I don’t like that fuckin’ noise! What is that shit?” Y’know what I’m sayin’? It’s essentially what people say about snap music. I mean, that’s a part of hip-hop – maybe that’s like the black sheep cousin. But you can’t exclude it because it doesn’t suit what you personally think that hip hop is supposed to be. Hip hop is not about what it’s supposed to be, hip hop is what it is. It’s what you contribute to the art form. I think a lot of people don’t understand that ‘cause they didn’t come up in the art form. I’m a child essentially of hip hop. That was the thing for me growing up so I’ve seen people say this shit wasn’t gonna last. Like I seen people say it out they mouth, not that I seen it on a tape watchin’ some old shit, (laughs) but from when I was a little shorty like, ‘that shit aint nothin’.’ Everybody thought Motown was the shit that was gonna last forever. I don’t think people understand…the same thing you protestin’, you become. When people said it about hip-hop and breakin’ and how that shit wasn’t gonna last, now we sit here and do the same thing to somethin’ that belongs to us essentially. Snap music belongs to us as well.

TSS: You’re definitely right about that. Being a mixape veteran, how do you feel about the DJ Drama situation?

Cons: Man, I mean I definitely feel for him, hopefully he’ll get outta that. But that’s a business issue more than anything else. With taxes and the government, you gotta make sure everything is everything. I think he’ll be aight though. And I don’t think that it’s gonna affect the game to the point where they’ll shut everything down. You gotta respect when police jump out and get everybody against the wall but that’s not gonna stop everybody from hustlin’.

TSS: No doubt. Are you lookin’ to do anything with Tribe in the future?

Cons: Yeah, definitely. I actually went on tour with them, the 2K7 reunion tour. On Q-Tip’s album that’s supposed to be comin’ out, “Live at the Renaissance”, me, him and Andre 3000 got a record on there and hopefully for my next album I’ll have a Tribe joint there.

TSS: Cool man, thanks for the interview and much success on the album.

Cons: Thank you and put that date in there for me man, March 6th…Let’s get it yo!

For more info on Consequence, visit www.Consmusic.com or www.myspace.com/Constothequence.

“Callin’ Me” Video – Directed by Kai Crawford/Broadway/Consequence

Don’t Quit Your Day Job (GOOD Music/Columbia Records) hits stores on March 6th.

Posted in "Fifteen Minutes With...", ARTIST INTERVIEWS, GENERAL