Chad Thomas Carsten: What do you stand for as an artist?

Donnie Menace: I personally feel I stand for that middleground of insanity and intelligence. I enjoy the fact that I can get my thoughts out through music without it being wack, whether it’s meant to be deep or just funny. I stand for just going against the common expectations of people and doing/saying what you feel without caring what the next person thinks.

CTC: Define freedom of speech.  What’s it like to be an artist that loves to offend and how important is it for an artist to be able say what they want without being censored?

DM: Freedom of speech is being able to say whatever the hell you want without worrying about the repercussions. Being an artist that takes pride in my offensive side of work can definitely be difficult at times, because for some odd reason when it comes to rap music and hip-hop culture, it’s already a misunderstood art form and lifestyle. So, when you get down how I get down, there’s bound to be a lot of people who will shun and judge things before even taking a chance to understand it. I do feel as if censorship is total bullshit and it’s an absolute joke. Example: I’m considered to not be “radio friendly” because I’m “too raw” or “too dark”, even if I don’t even swear in the song, but then the radio will play that song with that chick who says that a dude needs to, “eat her booty like groceries”!!?? I can go for days about how mass media contradicts itself, but that would be a whole other interview on its own. The double standards are dumb as hell and I’ll keep challenging them until I’m no longer breathing.

CTC: How do you stay original in a time where the Hip-Hop scene is flooded with too many rappers and fake artists, who think they’re a true MC?

DM: By making the music that I want to hear. It just so happens that not too many make what I like anymore, so therefore I rely on myself and my homies to fill that void.

CTC: Do you think there’s something about Donnie Menace fans that sets them apart from the rest of the other underground Hip-Hop fans/scene?

DM: From what I’ve gathered thus far? Yes. A lot of them share similar views to myself and my crew and are some of the most sarcastic, witty, sick-minded, open-minded, crazy, yet smart motherfuckers that you’ll ever meet. The wild thing is, I have a good portion of fans now that don’t even like rap, but they love what I do, which doesn’t even bother me. If I was someone who didn’t know much about rap, besides what is shoved down our throats through mass media nowadays, I’d think rap is trash too. I’m just glad I can change that opinion and perspective for some people with my disturbing music. *Laughs*

CTC: For those who have never seen Donnie Menace live, what should the unfamiliar look out for and why should fans be excited to watch your set?

DM: Energy, energy, and did I mention energy?! Fuck just saying I can rap my ass off and I’m dope. That’s not enough for me to want to watch someone, because the illest MC can be absolutely terrible on stage. Trust me, I’ve see it. Just know that you will not be bored watching me. I interact ALOT with the crowd!  You will have a blast, laugh your ass off, and probably end up sore from moshing or getting hit by random people or myself moshing into you. You might even see my clumsy ass trip over something too. *Laughs*

CTC: How does it feel to be invited to perform at the 16th Annual Gathering Of The Juggalos and what are you looking forward to the most at the GOTJ 2015?

DM: It’s an honor. GOTJ is practically the new Woodstock. The fact that it was created by the artists who practically laid the foundation on how to be an independent artist makes it even doper! To be honest, I’m looking forward to the entire experience of being there. I’ll be there as a fan and as an artist, so I’ll be having a blast with everyone and everything that The Gathering has to offer!

CTC: What is the history between you and Goldminded Records and how has being part of the Goldminded Records label helped establish your name?

DM: Man, that was through Dyad Souls. They were fans of me since Myspace and always kept in touch with me. Eventually they introduced me to Klive and we were doing a project call funeral directors with Klive, Dyad, myself, Nutkaze, and Absolut Karnage. But we never finished it due to just conflicts of interest. My verses I laid on that record is what made Klive want me on GMD and I took the offer. Klive and Dyad will always be homies of mine, regardless of where I end up later down the road.

CTC: For 2015, what are your all-time favorite projects that you’ve had the pleasure to appear on and why are they your all-time favorite guest feature?

DM: Man, so far for this year even though it’s pretty early, I’m going to have to say verses I laid down for Scum and Smallz one are my favorite collabs for 2015. Both of them hit me with concepts that made me pick my brain and have fun with my writing. Shout out to all of LSP as well! They’re all good people over there. I got some verses I laid down for my boys FREEZE, White Cheddar, Dieabolik of Dead Daze, iLL, Klive Kraven, and Alzymerz, that should all be dropping this year too.

CTC: June 12th is the official release date for your new album “The Threat 2 Audio Sickness”!  The release party for the Threat 2 will coincide with the Vegas stop for Lyrikal Snuff Productions Snuff HD Tour. When did you first become familiar with LSP and the main reason you decided to do the release party with LSP? Who would you say you’re the closest to inside the LSP camp?

DM: I was already planning on dropping my record in June and Scum was working on trying to get a date out here that same month. So, I said screw it and worked both shows together. I’ve known about LSP since the horrorcore.com forums days, but me and Scum never met until like 2008/09. I met him and Cyco of Insane Poetry on a tour stop when they were in Vegas. Since then, we just kept crossing paths and meeting mutual friends and kept in touch from there.  Cyco, Liquid, and Scum have been watching out for me and are great people all around. Anytime I’m in their neck of the woods, I’m posted with them and vice versa.

CTC: What’s the true meaning behind the Audio Sickness title and why you chose the title?

DM: The music is infectious. You listen to it and it’s going to stick to you and spread amongst those around you.

CTC: Who did the cover art and why did you choose them?

DM: Shayne Kraft did the cover, he’s been my go to guy for a while now. Hard headed fucker, but so am I and he’s always been great at bringing my visions to life!

CTC: How did the Threat 2 push you to a new level as a recording artist? Did you find something new inside yourself that you never knew you had within?

DM: I would hope so. Shit, it took my ass five years to finish this fucker. *Laughs* Nah, but for real the struggle to get back into song mode after only doing battles and collabs for as long as I did, after releasing Wrath, definitely forced me to become a better artist all around.

CTC: What new challenges did you face when recording The Threat 2 and how did you embrace the new challenges into the positive? Was there any unfamiliar territory you wanted to experiment within your style of Hip-Hop on The Threat 2, that you had the chance to flirt with?

DM: Chopping/Speed rapping. I’ve been doing it every now and then, but lately I’ve been really getting into it, because it’s something that I haven’t mastered. Punchlines, multis, normal flow comes second nature to me now. For chopping, I always have to go back and fix things because even the slightest syllable can throw your whole flow off. Even though a lot of artists are trying to do it now, not everybody is good at it.  It’s not about just speed, it’s about being able to have everything you say be understandable while flowing and not sound like you just drank a fucking bottle of pancake syrup and started yelling a million words per second. Aside from that, I’ve definitely been doing a lot more harmonizing/singing lately. I’ve had so many melodies in my head to the beats I’ve been getting. I’ve been really working on trying to get them to sound good, so I won’t have to rely on anyone else to do the singing for me.

CTC: Can you give the fans a track by track break down of your top five favorite songs featured on The Threat 2?!

DM: My top 5 tracks on this record are (in no particular order):

1. Blood Eagle W/ Twisted Insane and Bigg Limn – Limn hit me with the idea of us doing a track with him over one of Starlawds beats. It just put fire under my ass to spaz on my verse, solely because of who we were doing the collab with. Limn was the one that actually arranged everything to happen for this song. Limn being the dickhead that he is, wouldn’t send me Twisted Insane’s verse, so I could hear it before I wrote mine and wanted to see what I would do on me own with just knowing he was on it. Needless to say, I accepted that challenge and I actually ended up being happy with the finished product, because everybodys verses just fits perfectly. The song progressively picks up the pace with each person on its approach to their flows. Plus that beat is NUTS!
2. No Regrets – This song was actually written a few years prior to its release and was one of the first songs I made for this record. I wrote the first two verses just at a real low time in my life, when I was put on felony probation and basically a TON of opportunities I had were GONE, thanks to my restrictions and my PO not allowing me to leave the state or country. Needless to say, as much as I was trying to make new material and get things done, it just wasn’t happening how I would’ve liked it to at the time. I walked away from writing the third verse, because I got writer’s block on it. I finally went back to finish writing it and by that time I was out of my depression I and had finally realized the only way I’m going to get my shit right is if I get off of my ass and do something about it. The song just to me really symbolizes the mindset I once had and who I became when everything was all said and done.
3. Let Me Live – This song was written after I got out of my funk that I was in. I was basically just letting out everything I’ve had building up inside of me over the years that I think played a role in why I was so down and out in the first place. I have a bad habit of stressing over things and I when I blow up over them, it’s usually ugly. Fortunately I got it all out through this song.
4. Thomas Hewitt – Leatherface has always been my favorite movie slasher! When I first heard the beat, all I kept picturing was him running around annihilating people. Basically, the song wrote itself for me and it actually was written and recorded extremely last minute for this project.
5. What’s My Name – Not much depth with the song itself, but the energy, vibe, and flow this song has to me is out of this world. I played it once live and everyone LOVED it! I’m considering making a video to it, because of how anthem-ish it is. Merlin SNAPPED with the beat to this one!

CTC: How many songs overall did you record for The Threat 2 that didn’t make the final cut, and will fans be able to hear them in the future?

DM: Man, I recorded over thirty, I think. I split them up between the digital and physical versions as bonus and tracks. There’s like five more that didn’t make it just due to production issues and deadlines. I’ll probably put them out as an EP later this year if i can finally get them done.

CTC: Can you give some details on what all went down on both of the sets for “No Regrets” & “3 Amigos”, upon filming the videos for each of the singles? How many days did it take and how did you prepare?

DM: “No Regrets” took two days to do. The first day myself, my body double (Erick) and Jake Stark, went basically out into the middle of fuckin nowhere and shot all of the story scenes. This video was a work out man! We had to carry around this heavy ass generator everywhere to keep the fog machines and lighting on point. The shots where you see me smoking cigarettes, though? Bro, I should’ve died of cancer that night in itself, the wind kept blowing out the cigs during every shot and I had to keep lighting up and smoking new ones. *Laughs* For day two, we filmed all of the performance shots you see, where I’m just rapping with the hands from hell grabbing me. Fun fact about day two, one pair of the hands you see in those shots, are actually Doms Gauge’s hands lol.

3 Amigos video – Once again, I found myself shooting in the desert. We literally pulled this whole concept out of our asses, like the day before and brought it to Rob Seher (who has done videos for Dizzy Wright and quite a few other well-known artists). We shot it all the next day and just basically filmed as much dope and funny shit that we could think of, letting Rob work his magic on it.

CTC: What other singles from The Threat 2 will become music videos?

DM: I want to do a video to “What’s My Name”, as I said earlier.  Possibly “Let Me Live”.  I’m trying to come up with a concept to a video for “Watch Your Back”.

CTC: Please list some do’s and don’ts when promoting your own music as an independent recording artist

DM:  Promote to people who would actually care to check your music out. Spamming to rappers is dumb as hell.  They are artists themselves, so find consumers. Have some sort of edict and respect. I block people off of my FB on the daily basis who are stupid enough to post their song on my posts and it will be completely irrelevant to what I was posting about. If an artist asks you to post on their page it’s fine.  But if you work at Mickey D’s you aren’t going to walk into a Burger King and tell people in their line to come to your restaurant instead, while they’re trying to make their orders.

CTC: What are some ways you warm up in the booth before you record?

DM: Clearing my voice, practicing my verses, alcohol, power bombing a midget onto another midget, and sacrificing a virgin. I’m just joking about the last two though….. sorta.

CTC: What is your dream collab?

DM: As for collabs that would NEVER happen? Big L and Big Pun. Why won’t it happen? They’re both dead, sadly. Rest In Peace.

Now for collabs that could happen if the universe allowed them to?

There are a few rappers. I’ll just list them. Chris Rivers (The son of the late Big Pun), Twiztid, Tech N9ne, Styles P, Beanie Sigel, Blaze Ya Dead Homie, RA The Rugged Man, Necro, The Flatlinerz, Heltah Skeltah, Redman and Method Man.

Producers I’d love to work with one day? Se7en, DJ Premier, Khrysis, Jake One, Harry Fraud, Necro, and Rockwilder.

[youtube]https://youtu.be/iOqHOgA_tSY[/youtube]

Interviewer: Chad Thomas Carsten

Interview Date:06/07/15

Websites:

• Donnie Menace @ Facebook