Mr. Dead

Ex-Metabolic Mr. Dead im wohl ausführlichsten Interview seiner Karriere. Zum Release seines dritten Albums “MV3: Dynamic” quetschten wir auch noch die letzte Information aus dem East New Yorker Rapper heraus. Welcome to the world of Mr. Dead! 

What’s the deal Mr. Dead – give us a short insight into your world…

Well, hello, welcome to the world of Mr. Dead. The world where you experience things you’ve never experienced before – such as top notch, class a, high grade, real hip hop. On top of that acting skills that are impeccable and exceed to where no other rap artist has taken it. Even though a lot of people still don’t know about me I can honestly say that Mr. Dead is the next best thing happening. You know, I dropped the lyrical jewels, I act, I do comedy and I also do special effects make-up for tv, print, horror movies, music videos, you name it, I do it. I would call myself Mr. Dead aka Automatic.

What do we have to know about your new album? Could you just share some personal thoughts about it?

Hmmm, what do you need to know about my new album? Well, let me see: The album has been a minute in the making actually, and that is today one of my harder effort pieces that I’ve put more work into as far as songs conception wise. As far as production, working with different producers. One of the reasons why I worked with a lot of different people is because I have different valuables inside myself. I like different sounds and different venues of communicating my emotions through the music. When I hear peoples production, no matter how bizarre it sounds or totally the opposite of me, you might think it is, I end up making it mine because there’s a small part of it that’s already a part of me, that’s why I’m drawn into it. With this album, a lot of work went into it. It actually took me a minute to get it put out because when I was running around trying to get people to put it out. There was nobody who had anything bad to say about it but at the same time nobody wanted to touch it. So I was kinda confused, despaired little bit, I was like kinda sad, like “Man, nobody wants to put my album out! But why? It’s a good album.” You know, it’s a solid product. It’s not what’s playing on Hot’97 now. Yeah, I can say, definately check this one. To all my fans that liked the first and second volume: Volume III is just more the same, yet different. I have a lot of talented guest artists with me, I have a couple of different producers that I worked with on this one that you didn’t really see on the first and second one. Like Mr. Len and DJ 3D. Everybody else is like the same old crew, like Scotty Hard, Bimos, The Grand Wizard Prince Paul. And I got some nice guest vocalists, too: Iceman, he’s also known for beeing on the Dave Chapelle Show. Him and myself also are on the new Chris Rock album “Never Scared”, which won a grammy, I might add. Also I have this girl, a female MC that I met. She’s originally from Canada. Her name is L’Raynge. She’s pretty nasty, too. She has skills. But otherwise, people, go buy this album for a bunch of reasons: First and foremost, it’s straight from the heart just like the other two. I really put a lot of effort in it, it took me a long time to get it out. Actually, I can tell you that story. The album is out right now on Raptivism Records, shout out to everybody at Raptivism, especially Kevin McDormand. What happened was, this young man that works at Raptivism, he is a big fan of my music. He was wondering what happened to me. So he kinda went on a quest looking for me. He ran into Prince Paul he was asking him about me like ‘What’s up with Dead? Is he coming out with another album?’ And this and this. So Paul gave him my information and we hooked up. Then he went down to me and talked about reaching Kevin at Raptivism. Then I hit him with the product. That’s basically it, next thing I know, the album was out February 23rd of this year. And I got a music video out for the title track “Dynamic Tension”. The video was directed by Monihan Monihan. He’s a good friend of mine who also did Jean Grae’s music video.

Your booklet says that you either forgot or didn’t give a fuck about the people that were not mentioned. So what’s the deal with Big Pat…?

Oh, no, we’re seperated. Both musically and socially. We just don’t build with each other. Nothing lasts forever. You can be in a relationship and it’s not gonna last forever, somethings gotta happen. I said that being funny and serious because there was some people that I forgot to put, but I don’t really have like a problem with ‘em or anything. But for the obvious, you know, what’s there is there, but yeah, me and him don’t deal with each other anymore. But I wish him the best whatever I does. I heard that he’s actually still doing the music, so good luck to you.

So the chances are low to get another Metabolics-album?

With us together? Hmmm, I don’t know. I don’t think so. We’ve been seperated for so long. There are a couple of factors that contribute to the reason why we’ve growing out of each other. Actually me and his cousin are really still tight. He was actually trying to bring us together. I even went this far, I was like ‘Alright, well bring ‘em by the house.’ But he never came by, so he declined. I guess that sums it up. So I can say, more no than yes, but you never know. A thing that a lot of people don’t know is that, originally when I put Metabolics together it was four of us. Originally it was me, Mr. Dead an then was Big Pat. And then we had another MC that was down with us called Souplova. And then we had a DJ, his name was TLC. So basically as time went on, people just stuck to filter themselves out. My DJ came out and said one day ‘Man, I’m scared of being famous, I just wanna play house partys’. And I’m like ‘Alright, you can go on and do your business’. And then there was a discrepancy with the other MC on how we set up the studio time. He said that he had his part of the money, and he lied. We were recording a bunch of stuff back in the day, the demo days. The egineer was like ‘Well, you have to pay or I’m gonna keep the disks’. I had actually borrowed that part of money from a friend of mine at the last minute. Then after that, he got fired. Then it was down to me and Pat. We stuck with it and then we got our first break with the first album Metabolics “The M-virus” which dropped in 1998. Then I did the second one. The reason why he wasn’t on that many songs on the second one is that he was going through a phase where he just didn’t like a lot of the stuff I was playing. So I was like ‘You like this? You like this?’ And he was just like ‘No… No…’ And the he wasn’t around too tough. So I just took it up on myself. Do what I have to do. And then that’s the second album. Inbetween that me and him phased out of communicating with each other. So I mean, you never know, there might be, might not. It’s up in the air like balloons.

Let’s talk about your video to “Dynamic Tension”, what’s the deal behind all this pencil fighting? I have no clue…

Well, that’s Monihan Monihan. He’s a brillant director. But he’s eccentric. I know usually when you’re eccentric that basically means that you’re crazy and you’re rich. But he’s not rich but he’s still crazy so he’s still eccentric. He’s the one that actually introduced that to me and brought it to my attention. Cause at first I was concerned. He was like ‘Ayo Dead I got this idea and it’s gonna be funny’ and this and this. I mean I don’t wanted to be all dark and broody but at the same time I just don’t want it to be hella funny. So he explained it to me and that’s like a game that kids in his neighborhood back in the day used to play. Taking times trying to smash each other’s pencils in half. In first that’s the tension, the tension of holding the pencil to the point where you bending it. I get the whole connection of it because, as you saw in the video, I have to put tension into my pencil just to break his. So I have to bend mine damn near to the point where it’s gonna break. Just to get enough tension to build up that when I hit his, I smash it. So that’s what the whole thing is, it’s like a showdown with pencils.

You’ve also done a video with Jean Grae lately, how did you come up with that crazy stuff?

Well actually once again, that’s Monihan Monihan. He directed that video. I don’t know if you guys saw the Prince Paul “Diary” out there? Jean’s in that one in the commercial with the choreographer Creeqo Vallencio. She likes that character. Her and Monihan were talking and they we’re like ‘We wanna have a guest appearance in the video like Creeqo Vallencio, that crazy choreographer’. So I was like ‘Alright, sure, I do it’. Did you see the part where I was laying on the floor because I was drunk? I had six 40’s of OE. And I don’t even drink OE anymore. I stopped drinking malt liquor. So when we got the party I was like ‘Alright, well let me be festive and trying to have some fun’. But I ended up having too much fun and I fell on to the floor and I couldn’t get up. Yeah that’s Monihan’s idea once again with the bouncing on the balloons, jumping up and down. He’s a funny guy. He likes to do videos different. That’s why I like working with him. I like that crazy stuff, cause to me anyting typical is kind of boring. Anything different I’m up for.

Your son has also been featured in the video – what’s his opinion about your music?

Ah, my son, he looks up to me, he loves me to death as well as I love him. Today’s his birthday actually so I like to say on this interview ‘Happy birthday to Lil’ Dead’. He turned 12 years old today. Right now he’s out with his mom getting a haircut cause he had a big Soul Brother Afro which has to get trimmed down to a Low Brother Afro. But yeah, he likes the music. Actually he’s been in the studio since he was like 3 years old. I have pictures of him in the studio when he was a baby with Big Daddy Kane from when Kane was working with Prince Paul on the “Prince Among Thieves” album… And actually, I’m wrong, I’ma take that back, that’s not the first time. Actually my son Chris Jr. has been in the studio since when the Gravediggaz came out. He was born in ’94 so from when he was baby, I used to go down there and hang out and we used to bring him in the stroll and everything. So he’s been in the studio since he was a baby. When I went down to do the Chris Rock album I took him with me, too, and he got to meet Chris and he was up in the studio again. Him going to the studio is like home. He’s also on one of the songs on the new album “More Good Shit”. The one with me telling a story so I had to have him. The album wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t have my son on something.

Your fourty years old now, what to do you see when you take a look a in the future? Will you stick to the rap?

I know to certain people, they might look at it as a 40’s being old trying to do this and stuff. But basically the way I feel about it: I’m just getting started. I’m in my prime with everything I’m doing. From acting to doing special effects to doing music, to producing. My whole thing is: live life strong. Finish strong. Because when it’s all said and done, it’s all about the memories of what you leave behind and your achievements and what you’ve done that will define you. So I seen myself doing it for a minute because I’m 40 and there’s a lot of young cats out there that just can’t fuck with me. I’m not like a battle-battle guy, but I get in a nigga ass, it’s all good. I don’t mind battling my whole thing is: ‘When it’s all said and done, let’s still be friends. Don’t be mad. I don’t want you walking around not liking me because I outrhymed you. *laughs*

What happened to Word Sound? The whole label kinda dissappeared from one day to the other…

Actually, I don’t even know. I’ve heard different things, I heard that nothing else was coming out, than I heard something was coming out. I hear different stories. The little things I do hear… But I ain’t gonna lie, I think you can’t call me no more about what’s going on with Word Sound. I don’t keep in contact with the label. So I actually wouldn’t know if he’s (Anm.: Spectre) still doing something with it or not. Good question, though! I wish him the best, too.

You already mentioned your affiliation to Prince Paul – how did that come together?

I’ve known what man for 21 years, I’ve known Paul a very long time. We went to college together back in the day and from then on we just established a friendship nd kept in touch. He’s a good guy. He’s very, very intelligent when it comes to the music and everything in this. He has his art and his crap down packed. And I think people should really be paying more attention to him as opposed of some of these other cats that are out and that are not so hot and stuff. Prince Paul is my catalyst for being in the music genre. I don’t think I would have been inspired as much. Because you feel something, but then you have somebody around you that motivates you and then it makes you just take off and run with him more. He’s definately giving me alot of input as far as all the technical stuff and everything that you can wanna know about the music business. But with a dose of the fact that sometimes things don’t work out the way you want them to, with all the good things to look forward to.

Of course we have to talk about your special relation to horror movies – what fascinates you about this topic?

Ah man, horror movies! Big part of my life – sometimes my life is a horror movie! Ever since I was a kid my sister used to sneak and wake me up. My mama didn’t know, my sister wake me up at one or two in the morning *whispers* ‘Come on, come on, let’s watch this movie!’ *whispers* And as I got old as a kid, I was like ‘Man, I love this horror movies, they’re just the greatest thing’. And I’m like ‘I wanna do that. I wanna make blood and do stuff’. And I just started it, I persued it, I followed it and I ended up being able to cart my own niche into it by being able to do a couple of films and music videos. I did some stuff for Jean Grae. I did a photo shoot for her where she wanted her lips to be a zipper instead of her lips. So she had a zipper for her mouth and she had on these yellow cat concate lenses. And then I did another photo make-up for her with her throat slit and hear face scratched up. She has on a pair of head phones and the head phones are just plugged into her throat.I did the scoping for the letters for the trailer of this horror movie back in the days called “Species”. I did some effects with “Sergeant Kabukiman NYPD”, a Troma film wich was actually my first film – and I did like three different things: special effects, creative design and the storyboard art because I draw, too. I’ve done music videos with Hype Williams for the Gravediggaz’ “Diary Of A Madman”. I did the D.O.C. “The Return Of The Living Dead” when he tried to make a comeback after the car accident that damaged his throat. I did the zombie stuff in that. Done some stuff for Troma films for H.B.O. Cinemax. And I’m currently in the process of get ready to make my own horror film acutally. I’ve been hearing that for a long time, my people were like ‘Yeah Dead, you should make a horror movie since you like ‘em so much and you know how to go about it and how to make people scared’. This horror movie, that’s me and my sister slash partner slash make up assistant – she’s a protege of mine, her name is LaLa. She also done a little rhyming, if you hear anything with me with a female, that’s her. We came together and we wanted to do this horror movie. What happened was, I went to visit her in her house one day, she lives in an apartement building, she lives across the street from me. She was like “Hey yo, I wanna show you something really strange’. So she takes me down in the basement, she was like ‘there’s a box down there’. Just like a wooden box that a person can sit inside and it has a door! So I was like ‘Man, this is creepy, wanna make a movie about it!’ *laughs* So basically the movie is about a single mother that loses her apartment and her job. And she goes and gets a new job and a new place to live, but in this apartment building down in the basement is this crazy guy. And he brings people down there and he tortures them and he sits them in that box and he just does alot of crazy jacked up stuff to them and he looks all crazy and jacked up. Basically it’s gonna be a crazy movie. It’s called “Foresights”, that’s in the works. And also I’m gonna be doing some music for an upcoming movie directed by a good friend of mine, his name is Victor Varnado. I don’t know you’ve heard of him but I’m quiet sure you’ve seen him in movies before. Did you see “End Of Days” with Arnold Schwarzenegger? Do you remember the albino actor on the train that broke into glass and into pieces? That’s him! He’s a friend of mine, his name is Victor Varnado and he’s coming out with a movie and I’m gonna be doing some songs on the soundtrack for his movie as well. Also, I’m in the main issue of Excellerated Magazine. I haven’t seen it yet, I’m waiting for them mail it to me. They make a two page article and they wanted me to show my horror skills. So I out some make-up on and my assistant LaLa she coloured it. We took some nice photos, that’s something to look forward to.

Would you consider your music as horrorcore? How do you call it?

Oh, Horrorcore? No, I would’t say that because they try to stick that with the Gravediggaz. But the Gravediggaz weren’t really horrorcore, that was them expressing themselves on another level. They just incorporated a creepy dark element into it and then basically everybody else came out on some horror shit. That was horrorcore because the music was horrible. I would consider that horrorcore but not my music. I have my own sound and I incorporate what I like into what I do. I guess that sound silly but it’s true: I like horror movies, I like music and movies and music go hand in hand anyway. So I just imply a little bit of the horror on certain songs. When this is a horrorcore beat and it doesn’t really sound scary but hard, I’m gonna hit it hard. But when this is a beat that sounds kinda creepy, I’m like ‘Man, I can get a little bit horrible on it’. I wouldn’t call my music horrorcore I would say my music is next level.

You also have funny elements like Pimp Daddy Shrimp for example…

Yeah, like him! I have these different characters. Pimp Daddy Shrimp, he’s a funny guy. He just wants to throw parties and trying to get women to eat seafood and stuff with no panties on. Yeah, yeah he’s a old perverted pimp…

I like this character! *laughs*

Thank you! That’s why I thought it was really important to bring him back on the third album. I was just like ‘let me get another party song going on!’ That’s why you have people like him. You also have the Johnny Massengill character: he’s like the R’n’B guy, he sings and he just wants women to be vaginally clean. And alot of women get mad at that! I’ve done shows as that character and I had women giving me the finger. They were mad at me! I was like ‘woah, I can’t really take it personal because by you get mad at me ’bout that you kinda say something to me’. Because I’m like ‘well, let me put it like this: when R. Kelly came out with that real video tape with him really peeing on little girls, people still bought his music and supported him. So if I make fun of him by doing that character – how can people get mad at me? How can you get mad at me making fun of somebody that did something nasty for real? On top of that I look at it like this: all the women that get mad at me it’s probably because they’re not too clean. *laughs* You know, if I made a song saying ‘Guys, stop having funky balls, clean your balls’, if you have guys in the audience that are like ‘Ah, you suck’ and ‘You’re corny’, they got funky balls then! Because if their balls were clean, they’d be like ‘Yeah, I’m scratching no funky balls motherfucker, namsayin!’ But you have people hackling you anyway, everybody is not gonna like what I do. That’s why when I do music I don’t think about everybody else. Because if I did I’d be making a lot of dumb shit, too. When I create something, I have to like it first. If I don’t like it I can’t get you to like it. I have to spit the truth out because it doesn’t make sense for me lying and then trying to get you to believe the lie. Because then I’m fucking with you and I’m fucking with myself. So I figure I lay down the truth and you either like it or you don’t. And if you like it, that means we’re on the same page and I keep doing it for you. Without the fans and people supporting and appreciating what I do I really wouldn’t be doing anything and I definately would like to say to everybody out there: Big ups, I love y’all to death. Trust me, believe me when I tell you – if I would be doing this for the money I wouldn’t have done a third album. It’s straight from the heart, I do my thing, it’s mostly from the heart. And then there’s another part of me that I feel, too. I’m too good to not do it! I’m too fly to not be in this music business. There’s a lot of cats that are really bad and they’re in this music business. So I figured if some are so dope and nasty, why should I bow out? So I’ma just stick in there forever. The only time you see that I won’t be rhyming is when I can’t talk no more. Be prepared to hear me in my old age, in my 50’s and 60’s, just spittin poison at you!

Is there anything I forgot to ask about? Tell me now…

Mr. Dead, Dynamic Tension, this is Metabolics Vol. 3 y’all. Raptivism Records. Definately pick that up. If you already have it then you know what the truth is… Oh, I’m currently working on my fourth album too even while I’m doing the movie. It’s not titled yet. I don’t think that I put like a Metabolics Vol. 4 cause everybody knows what it is. If anybody out there in Germany has some really hot tracks for me, please contact me at mrdeadtittytyme@yahoo.com to reach out to Mr. Dead to send me music or nude pictures – of women, not men! Otherwise you can reach me at mrdead@tmail.com. Oh, and another thing, Raptivism is re-releasing Metabolics Vol. 2. It’s gonna have new artwork, a whole new cover, and it’s gonna have some extra songs on there. So keep an eye out for that as well. Hopefully I can get out there this summer to rock the stage for y’all, get some shows going out there. I love coming out there, rip up the shows, shopping for toys, get some tatoos and shit, just see the sights.