Souls of Hip Hop

Throwback: Redman

March 02, 2021 Redman Season 2 Episode 3
Souls of Hip Hop
Throwback: Redman
Show Notes Transcript

In 2013, we had the chance to talk to Reggie Noble, better known as Redman. He has been making some of the most classic albums from 1990 until today. In addition, Red is also an actor, producer, DJ, fashion creator, and overall cultural icon.

We chat about pioneering the New Jersey style of rap, making a sequel to How High, his pit bull terrier "Daddy", fighting other emcees on Def Jam Vendetta, Cory Booker running for senate, and why he vibes so well with Method Man.

You can find Redman here:
https://twitter.com/therealredman
www.facebook.com/redmansworld/
www.instagram.com/redmangilla/
www.imdb.com/name/nm0714983/
https://open.spotify.com/artist/7xTKLpo7UCzXSnlH7fOIoM

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What's good, what's good? Redman in the building, you already know, Jersey in the building, Switzerland in the motherfucking building. When you want that hot hip hop on the ones and twos, check my boy Razor Cut! Yo Razor; Let's get'em.

Welcome to Souls of Hip Hop:

Throwback edition. between 2004 and 2015, I interviewed many hip hop artists and recently discovered some of the recordings in my archive. We want to share a selection of our favorites and bring you these throwbacks in between our regular episodes. Enjoy. Reggie Noble, better known as Redman is one of my all time favorite MCs. He has been making some of the most classic albums from 1990 until today. In addition, Redman is also an actor, producer, DJ, fashion creator and overall cultural icon. So when I got the opportunity to briefly interview him in 2013, after one of his shows, I was obviously super excited. Unfortunately, the backstage was hectic and loud, so please forgive the background noise and reverb. Here's the throwback. Today is Mother's Day. What can you tell us about your mother? She was the best thing that ever happened to me. She made me who I am, what I believe in. Her and my father. I give my credit to her cuz my father shot me out his balls. So I owe credit to him, too, but today is Mother's Day. So ... Through your music, films and overall image you have manifested yourself on the Mount Rushmore of smoking weed. Did your mother ever catch you smoking weed as a teenager? She never caught me smoking weed. I told her I smoke weed.

And she said:

You better leave that shit alone. Whenever I hear you on a track, your style is immediately recognizable. And you are one of the originators of Jersey rap. How would you describe your style? I've always been an analyst on rap. I think I was like an analyst and jersey style was always loose, punch lines, creative. We had to stand out because we was next door to New York. So we had to stand out. And we stood out with punch lines and being more loose on the mic. I was part of that jersey growth of the style created as I might say, that growth of that jersey style. There were MCs before me like Lakim Shabazz, Queen Latifah, Chill Rob G, I think was from Jersey. And then it started developing through more of an underground sound like with me, and also the underground and started off with Treach, Naughty by Nature and Artifacts. That's when it comes to the more personalized more underground loose wrap. So we kind of birthed that, we was part of that birth of that jersey style. And now you have, you know, MCs, battle MCs like Arsenal and too serve that's holding Jersey down and Joe Budden and then it's now it's a new generation coming in. So as the style develops and changes more as it as it grows as I guess the generation grows, the styles get more developed. But it started from our circle. You are living legend of the rap game. Do you feel like you still have anything to prove to anyone? especially the younger generation? No, not at all. I'm just servicing my fans. I don't want to prove nothing to the new crowd. I don't want to be ... if the new crowd except me. Yes, but I'm not trying to prove anything to the new crowd. I just want to serve as my fans with this good 90s music for the rest of my term out. I have nothing to prove. I prove that still to this day in the States. I'm on the top 10 rap lists, still to this day and you know I got guys like Eminem who says I'm his favorite rapper. Ludacris that says I'm his favorite rapper. when a lot of guys out there that say Redman still hold shit down. So I'm good. I don't have nothing else to prove. Def Jam created a character of you in the video game. Did you ever get to play with your own character and whoop some of the other MCs Yes, I have in my character on Def Jam vendetta works as my character whoops ass. I'm very proud of that. I'm glad I am a part of that. Yeah, I have no I have no beef with that man. Like it's a privilege playing my own character. And again, it just shows the success and growth I made and what kind of base I made in hip hop. I made a good base, a good foundation. So somebody wanted to make a game out of my character. So I made good in this hip hop. I didn't just service music, I service a character I service personality, which wanted them to make Redman a character in a game. So I did good. Your movie How high is an absolute cult classic. And everyone is sitting on the edge of their chair waiting for a sequel. Are you able to share any speculations, if how high 2 will come to fruition? We're dependent on our manager to do this. We have talks about the how high 2. I don't know, man, it's still in the works right now. Like, before, it wasn't a leeway. But now it might be a little leeway. We just need our business end to be more tight. and like, honestly, I'm gonna just let y'all know bottom line. And this is the really kind of first time I'm really saying this shit, like Redman and Method Man is willing to work but our business end, we have business teams that we ... our business team needs to be better, our circle needs to be better on our business. And that's what it really is, you know, and Red and Meth take part in that too. Because instead of stepping up to the foreground and seeing what the business is, we have been depending on people to do business for us the correct way. And that's not how it's gonna go and that's not how it's gonna fucking go no more with fucking me no more. I'm getting this fucking business right! That's what I'm doing. I'm going in and I'm getting this business right and I know what we supposed to do, then that's where we at with it. I heard you're also working on bringing out your own shoe line. What can you tell us about that? You know what I'm glad you asked. that's in the makings. Um, anybody? I've been talking to a couple of people just to get ideas to see how I should go about this. I'm going to make a promotion issue. If not, I'm gonna work on it still. I'm not gonna stop till that happens. Put it that way. That's one of my passions. And on the music side, can you tell us when your next album will be dropping? Muddy waters 2 coming in September or October. working on it now. I got like four more songs to do. Cesar Millan's show the dog whisperer just ended. You had your Pitbull terrier daddy trained by him. Do you still have him? No, no, no. Cesar always said if I wanted a new dog, he would get me another dog. But I'm not ready for another dog yet. I'm just glad that my dog had the chance to have success as much as he did. He had probably a bigger Success than me. Because he was on Oprah and I wasn't on Oprah. And I'm glad that you know my dog was able to help out you know my boy career. My thing is, tell Cesar Milan. Hey, Cesar, let me get a little money, bro. Break me off. Break me off a little something. I could use it right now. But if not, hey, much success to him anyway. Cory Booker, the mayor of Newark, is about to run for senate this year, which would make him the first African American senator from New Jersey. What are your thoughts on Cory? I think is great. I think he should run for Senate. You know, everybody is going to be a hater. Everybody's going to have something to say. But he shouldn't run for Senate. I mean, why not? He did a good job when he was in term. You and Method Man are viewed as one of the illest hip hop duo's in history. Why do you think the two of you makes such a powerful combination? I don't know, cuz we think the same, we're from the same era. So we can appreciate that, have the same kind of energy on stage. And it's like, what makes it work is that we understand each other as men, you can't have a business, if you don't know where your man want to go or if you don't know what he's after. And that's one thing that we, me and him can appreciate about each other, is that we never have no egos. You know, my idea is his idea, his idea is my idea. And we stick to it as one. But we don't break that for nobody. And I think that's like one of the reasons musically that we can go in comfortably. Knowing that at the end of the project is all one. See when you go in with that kind of mind frame understanding someone as a man first, then when you do things musically it betters, you have a better outcome. And honestly, it's better for the music too. Because when you're going in with the right attitude, the music shows like wow, they go in, that's why we got that energy. So we got a lot more work to do and a lot of more business ends to top on ou end man, to make this shit op off. So believe me, you'll be seeing a lot more of A huge shout out and thank you to Redman for taking the time o chat with us. Our theme music as beatboxed by Denis the Menace and produced by Zede. A big sho t out to the brothers fr m Switzerlan The background music was produced by Taki Brano. A big hank you to our broski from rovidence. Our podcast asically runs on coffee. To eep our show running you can upport by buying a copy through he link in our show notes. I am andy. I'm DJ Razor C And this is souls of hip hop.