Choppin‘ it up with Sick Jacken & Cynic

A few weeks ago I received an eMail from the fellas of Classic Tattoo Berlin. They brought the Miami Ink-guys over to Germany and wanted us to have a lil‘ interview-thing with them at the radio station. Sure thing – why not?! The mail also mentioned some unknown Cypress Hill-vocalist they’d bring over. Mr. H.C.I.C. (Head Cracker In Charge that is) John and me were wondering. Who could that be?! Would they bring B-Real or Sen Dog? So we asked them and reply was „Mr. Psycho Rylm“ [sic]. SAY WHAT?! They’d bring Sick Jacken wit‘ them?! HELL YEAH, they did! Now THIS was a big thing for me, since I’ve been a Sick Side-listener for the past 15 years. Only a listener though. Never a soldier, which was obvious, when a non-familiar-looking guy in a blue shirt complimented me on my South Central Cartel-shirt. Little did I know it was the person I spoke about later. Jacken and me chopped it up on the chit-chat-tip when I told him „How long’s this Terror Tapes 2 been out?! I just LOVE Cynic, his voice and his flow are off the chain“ – Jacken laughed and pointed over to the guy sittin‘ on the couch „That’s my brother over there“. Ice was broken.

So we got our interview on. Jumpin‘ off with an explanation on what the whole „Sick Side“ is all about and where that came from.

This directly led us to the meaning of all this military vocabulary in the Sick Symphonies-Movement. Sick Side Soldiers/Uniforms, Street Platoons, War Story… Check out how Jacken explains all the military imagery.

Since Jacken and Cynic came to Berlin to promote their new collaborative effort Terror Tapes 2 (which, by the way, is pretty dope, so GET IT), I had to ask Cynic how it feels working with Jacken…

Next on the agenda was a question that I asked myself countless times over the years: how did that collaboration between 2Mex and Jacken happen?! It was FAR from obvious, even though both are of Mexican descent (ooooh – get the wordplay?!). Mr. Jacken shed a lil‘ light on that one.

Alright, since I had the chance to speak to Jacken, you know I would have to touch on the accident that happened to his brother Duke, destroyed Psycho Realm as a group and the most sad thing: his ability to walk and way of livin‘ the way he was used to. I really didn’t wanna go all dramatic and insightful on it though. It’s been done a billion times already. Also, it was written. By the man himself. So those that know know and those of you who don’t, READ IT UP. This easily is one of the most honest and saddest things I’ve ever come across. You think you know anything about courage, pride or manhood? You don’t know jack until your read this.
So I asked Jacken in what way it changed his take on music when Duke left. He kept it professional, touchin‘ on a very emotional topic which really impressed me.

Accidents like this one teach you to live without regrets, I guess. Which would explain Jacken’s answer when I asked him what he would have told the Young Jacken, 15 years ago, when the first Psycho Realm-LP dropped…

To wrap it up, I asked Cynic what a picture perfect morning in the life of Cynic would look like. And his answer was just as honest and humble as his rhymes are. Those dudes are real – 100.

To all of those that kept on readin‘ up until now: there’s a lottery this time. You want a signed copy of Terror Tapes 2? Of course you do! Like the facebook-page to register for the lottery and grant your chance to win a copy of the CD!

Thanks to Jacken, Cynic, Classic Tattoo, Miami Ink and anybody else I might’ve forgotten, that enabled this interview!

Choppin‘ it up with A$AP Rocky

Recently I had the chance to touch down with the hottest MC in the game right now: A$AP Rocky that is. He and his crew invaded Berlin on his European tour…and boooooy what a blast this was! Venue filled with weed smoke, fine girls everywhere and the A$AP Mob doin‘ what they do best: raisin‘ hell!

Right before the concert took place, John and me sat down with Rocky and chopped it up for 93.6 JAM FM Berlin. Talk was about Screw-Tapes, haters and stardom.

We kicked it off with the obvious: DJ Screw! The man & the myth has been referenced continously in Rocky’s music, so I grabbed my vintage 3 ‚N The Mornin‘, pulled it out the pocket and asked the Pretty Flacko what he knows about the maze!

So after the foundation was built, we got a lil‘ deeper into it, talking about how Rocky was first introduced to Screwed Music. By the way: his favorite Screw-song is „25 Lighters„. How could you not love DJ DMD, Fat Pat & Lil Keke?!

Things got a lil‘ more serious afterwards when we talked about Hip Hop’s No. 1 Topic: haters! Hear how Mr. A$AP deals with hate and how he explains hateration as a whole.

The Pretty Muthafucka seems so vivid, so graphic – it’s almost impossible to believe A$AP Rocky is a real person but more of a piece of art. Rocky breaks it down pretty simple though…

With the Rakim-reference bein‘ made, I had to ask Rocky about the interview with Angie Martinez, when she brought the God Rakim in the studio and introduced him to A$AP. Now, since it’s pretty sure to say Angie’s his favorite radio personality for that, I wanted to know WHO I had to introduce to Rocky for that new No. 1-spot.

Now, the next question is pretty strange from a retrospective, since there’s some MAJOR funk goin‘ on between Rocky’s A$AP Mob and SpaceGhostPurrp’s RVIDXR KLVN, but two weeks ago, this is what Rocky had to say about SPG and their „situation“.

Comes across pretty awkward considering all the twitter-beefin‘, the youtubin‘ and all the rah-rah goin‘ on right now between A$AP and the KLVN! Let’s just all hope the funk ain’t gonna get physical but that they’ll squash their situation and continue to produce heat like they did with Purple Swag, Pretty Flacko and all that good shit.

Nonetheless, we finished off the interview with a lil‘ insight on how stardom comes naturally to the leader of the Mob, even though it’s puzzling sometimes when you wake up in a hotel room and don’t really know where you are…

Right afterwards Rocky invited us to stay with him and the Mob to hang out and have a good time. Just after we got ourselves something so smoke, I sat down with A$AP Yams had some mad conversation about Screw tapes and hoochies and just zoned out. Mad respect at Yams for that Screw-skull on his neck and the whole Mob for all the love they where showin‘ me. Special shout out goes to Geeno for the company and his hospitality and also J Scott & Chace Infinite.

Oh…and for all of you that weren’t fortunate enough to witness the show, just peep this as a lil‘ glimpse of what went down when A$AP crashed the Festsaal Kreuzberg: