MSN Canada recently caught up with Madchild for an in-depth interview. In this discussion they had Madchild talks about his latest album “Lawn Mower Man”, the first single from the album “It Gets Better”, His next album “Super Beast”, possible timetable for the next Swollen Members album and more.

Some of the Questions he answered were, What is an underground rapper now? Has it changed with the Internet?, When did you have time to make Lawn Mower Man?, Lawn Mower Man came out August 6, and then Super Beast will be released in the winter?, If someone has never heard Madchild’s music before, what song should they start with?, and more you can read this full interview below.

From Entertainment.ca.msn.com:

Madchild, the Vancouver-born emcee is on the tear of his career. His first solo album, Dope Sick, was critically-acclaimed and Juno-nominated, his group Swollen Members released a huge album earlier this year and the man born Shane Bunting will be releasing his second solo disc, Lawn Mower Man, on August 6th. MSN caught up with Mad over the phone from Vancouver to discuss the record, his hip-hop influences, underground rap, cyberbullying and more.

The first single, It Gets Better, about a rebirth, about a change in life, do you want to talk about crafting that. When did you have time to make this record? When we wrote a piece on Prevail (from Swollen Members) a few months ago, you were touring.
Yeah! That’s just one of the great things about sobriety. I’ve been sober three years now and I like calling it just being normal because I think the word sobriety kind of scares people and it even scares me a little bit. So I tend to use the word normal. Sort of what I call being normal now just allows me a lot of time and I’m a workaholic. So it’s like people with addictive personalities can either be addictive to bad things or positive things, right? For instance, pre-2006 when I owned Battle Axe records and had 11 employees and we were winning MuchMusic awards and Junos and gold and platinum records and conquering the universe… besides the talent and hard work of course of the group, I was also the captain of the ship and my work ethic had something to do with that. So now being that person again, work is my life again, besides my family and my dogs and my girlfriend and my few close friends. So, when do I have time? I don’t have time for anything else but this, if that makes sense.

Prevail was mentioning that when you stopped in Winnipeg on tour you stayed at DJ Dow Jones’ place and recorded like 13 verses in three days or something like that.
Yeah, and I don’t do that every day. That was just sort of getting caught up on jobs that people were waiting on. You know, it’s kind of popular now in hip-hop, I don’t know how long it’s going to last for, but for kids to buy verses off their favourite rappers, so I had a line of kids waiting because we were on tour and I said, “You know what? I’m just going to prove to myself that I can knock it out in this amount of time.” So we just buckled down with Rob and got those all done in those three days there.

How does that work? Do they send you a beat and say, “Hey we’re looking for a verse about this theme” or they just want a verse from you and they’ll work around it?
It’s a combination of both. I know that they’re hiring me because they like what I do. So I might ask them, “Do you want me to just beast out? Be ferocious with my lyricism or do you want to talk about a topic?” We’ll usually quickly talk about that by e-mail first. Or, I prefer if I hear their verse first so I can sort of feed off what they do but usually they want that sort of abstract fierce lyricism that I do. That’s usually what they’re hiring me for.

Do you think that’s what you’re known for? Is that what makes Madchild, Madchild?
I think that’s what separates me from the rest of the herd, absolutely. It’s something that’s always been super important to me as a fan and I know that I’ve always been extremely disappointed in the past when I had favorite rappers because of how incredibly talented they were when it came to wordplay and it was quite apparent that their main strength was focusing on their wordplay. It always was a huge disappointment to me when I was younger when they started watering down their lyrics or when they started not focusing on that as much or maybe changing their style because they thought it was going to make them more money. So, here I am faced with that same thing now and I’m trying to make sure that I don’t disappoint the kid inside of me. Because I’m quite certain that what separates me from the rest of the emcees out there is, and I speak for Prevail as well because he’s in that category and there’s a handful of us out there for sure, but guys that really, really focus on razor sharp lyrics and using words in ways that hopefully haven’t been used before and real sort of dark poetic paintings being made with words. That’s always been our thing and I believe that’s why I’ve sort of been embraced the way I have as an artist.

As a lyricist do you write down and really go over and cross out words here and there and do revision after revision until you feel the right thing? Or are you more of a stream of consciousness kind of writer?
I used to do exactly that. I used to take a long time to get one verse done or two verses done. As I’ve evolved during this last three years I’ve sort of had to sit down and make a decision, am I going to focus on business again or am I going to focus on the art? So I decided to focus on the art. So, as I’ve evolved over the last two and half years I went from doing exactly that, where I would just focus on one verse and go back and revise and make it so razor sharp. But, we’re living in a time now where the listener demands quantity as well as quality. So a lot of rappers now will put things out literally on a weekly or daily basis as far as blog leaks or, you know, rappers who are successful are in the studio every day now. I just simply can’t do that because I’m focusing on business again. But I do try and go, when I’m rolling and when I’m inspired, I’m trying to go to the studio four to five hours five nights a week with Rob The Viking. As I’ve evolved you just simply have to be a little more free-spirited, a little bit more free with your style, and I feel that even though my style is evolving and in some ways simplifying, my word play is getting even more impressive to me because I keep finding out ways to rhyme words that I haven’t done before which is not an easy task after a decade and a half. So, I feel like I’m coming up with new and exciting ways to be me and make music that I want to listen to because I’ve found that’s the best recipe, to make music that I want to listen to, and to write lyrics that I want to impress myself with and hear, so with that being said it’s more a numbers game. I can go and do a whole song now in five hours and still be 98% happy or 95% happy with what I’ve done and that just has to be good enough now to be able to compete with the quantity that’s out there because it’s such an over-saturated world because of the Internet. I could focus on being a perfect artist and carving out every verse perfectly and strategically and going over it, and over it and then only putting out an album every two years, but I feel that it’s better to put out an album every seven months.

So is that the plan? Lawn Mower Man comes out August 6, and then Super Beast will be released in the winter?
Yeah, I mean I could have Super Beast ready for October 21, my birthday, and that would literally be three months later and I would love to do that. But, of course I’m in Swollen Members as well so I’m assuming that slot will go to the next Swollen Members album.

What you’re saying kind of goes against, and I figured you were just being cheeky, in Tiger Style, when you said there’s “No one to impress and nothing to prove.” It still sounds like you need to prove to and impress yourself.
Absolutely the person that I need to impress is myself. What I mean by that is, I literally have a real problem with the way kids talk on the Internet and you literally, it doesn’t matter, it’s almost impossible to get everyone’s approval. The way that these kids talk on the Internet, and I am not a target for hatred, I’m very fortunate of how much I don’t get hated on, on the Internet, and still I find it very disrespectful. But what I have to remember is when I’m reading these YouTube comments is that these kids could be 11 or 12 years-old with their computers at home. There should be a rule, a law, and I’m serious about this, there should be a law or a way that the government, that people’s age has to come up on the comments or at least a real photo so you get some kind of an idea of the person that’s writing these things. It’s like this, kids aren’t going to walk down the street and go, “Hey! You’re a jerk! You’re a fat a**hole! You’re a goof” or “You suck!” or “You should go kill yourself!” or you know “Why don’t you go have sex with…” you know, terrible things they say on the Internet. Kids don’t walk down the street and say that. So why is it okay, and I’m sorry I’m just going off on a tangent about something else from what your question was, even though it’s related, but why is it okay for kids to say these terrible, terrible things on the Internet and everyone’s just accepting it like, “Oh, they’re just haters that’s just the way it is.” Why are we as human beings saying that that’s okay? I don’t understand it. Why is something not being done about this? I know there’s anti-bullying because poor kids are committing suicide because of terrible things people are saying on Facebook, like the poor girl that died here a few months ago. So of course everyone gets together for the anti-bullying thing, but I mean why is something actually not being done? This is a huge problem. Everyone has a [smart] phone. Everyone has a computer. They’re not going away. This is the way things are now, as human beings we should be ashamed of ourselves, of how people’s etiquette is on the Internet. I’ve got tough skin, I can take it, I know who I am, and I’m a confident person. Honestly, I’m super, super fortunate and super, super lucky that I’m usually just getting props on the Internet and people are usually saying great things. But you know it still stings when you get those comments once in a while and I go onto other people’s pages and I see how much sh*t these kids talk and how much sh*t they talk to each other, and so quick to say, “Oh go kill yourself,” and go do this and go do that, and it’s just like, man, I really hope that…I hope it’s a phase or a trend that passes. This is what surprises me, is this generation of kids is so much better than a decade ago. These kids are so much more conscious about the environment, they’re so much more open minded about gay people and everybody being equal and not being homophobic, there’s so much positivity with this new generation that I’m super surprised that we’re having this problem with the Internet. It’s like the generation I came from thought being a gangster was cool, these kids don’t think that’s cool anymore, they think that stuff is lame. This is great, these are all positive changes for the world. But that’s why I’m surprised, you know, maybe it’s more people that are in their mid-twenties talking all this sh*t, I don’t know.

Talking about that gangster culture, on “Underground King” you sample a little of 50 Cent’s ‘Hate It Or Love It’, the hook at the end, where did that idea come from?
It’s just hip-hop. It was my idea, I’m guilty as charged. That first 50 Cent album, or his first major release, Get Rich Or Die Trying is one of the top ten hip-hop albums of all-time, I’m really not interested if anybody disagrees with me, it’s just simply one of the best hip-hop albums ever made, and it was one of the most impactful albums ever made, it might have gone in a negative turn but it was still an incredible album.

That’s the record that propelled the gangster culture to the mainstream.
It’s exactly because of that record. It is exactly, the whole thing exploded exactly because of that record. But hey, still, credit where credit is due and what an incredible album and man was it a lot of fun to listen to that. I just actually believe it or not, bought a brand new copy of that from Future Shop yesterday.  How funny is that? So, yeah I just…you know one thing probably a lot of my fans don’t understand and I’m going to put myself on blast right now, is even though I’m an underground rapper, and hopefully by the time my career is done, hopefully I’ll go down in history as one of the guys that really stayed true to being an underground rapper, you know I had a couple of bumps in the road but I love 50 Cent. Like his older stuff and I love it when he still does a great song. I love Lil’ Wayne, I love Drake, I love French Montana, I love listening to…there’s a time and a place to listen to this music and I love listening to that music. Of course I love La Coka Nostra and Jedi Mind Tricks and my friends Dilated Peoples and Slain and all the underground great groups, of course I love that. But there’s room to enjoy both types of hip-hop. I’m just being honest, you know what I mean? So my fans are probably like, “Oh my God! I can’t believe he said he likes Drake!” I love Drake, I love listening to Drake, the guy is incredibly talented and I’m proud that he’s Canadian. I am not going to try and emulate his style which was the point of my line in that song and I just tweeted about it yesterday, I was like, “By the way for anybody listening to the new song ‘Underground King’ because it just came out a week ago, I wasn’t in any way, shape, or form dissing Drake or Mac Miller, I was simply stating that rappers emulate the style of successful emcees. As soon as they become popular you’ll hear a whole bunch of rappers emulate that exact style which of course has very blatantly and obviously happened with Drake.” So that was all I was saying there. I think the guy is incredibly talented.

What is an underground rapper now? Has it changed with the Internet?
An underground rapper to me is somebody who first of all acknowledges that he’s part of the underground scene. And when you acknowledge that you’re an underground rapper you’re acknowledging a time and an era and you’re acknowledging your responsibility to preserve that part of the culture of hip-hop. And to me, yes, I still have a collection of supreme backpacks, you know what I mean? The concept of being a backpack rapper is something that I’m just going to keep close to my heart because it was during a time that was very exciting for me. 93 Til Infinity was also one of the top ten best hip-hop albums ever made by Souls of Mischief. I’m personal friends with some of the guys in Souls of Mischief and I’ve done music with Del and Casual and the whole Hieroglyphics crew and you know, maybe they’re not at the forefront like they were, but there was a time, there was a generation where they were untouchable and that was a big part of my life, the whole Hieroglyphics crew. For Prevail it was the whole Freestyle Fellowship crew, and even from the east coast groups like Leaders of the New School, Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul. It’s even a bit of a generation gap from that to, not a generation gap, but a bit of a…well it’s all around the same time period, 93 Til Infinity, De La Soul was a bit earlier with their first record, I think it was late 80s, Three Feet High And Rising. But that whole era, there was a consciousness to hip-hop, even when there wasn’t as much of a consciousness to the overall thing, everybody was still outshining each other with their skill level, meaning their wordplay. Meaning they would wow us, the listener, with how incredible they put the words together. They focused on it. There was nothing watered down. So being an underground rapper, to me, is not watering down your music to be successful. To me being an underground rapper is not saying…like I know the formula, I can go and make a bunch of songs for the radio, but I know that I would be selling myself out and lying to myself and lying to my fans. I could easily do it. I know how to do that, but being an underground rapper I stand for something. So the reason I’m so proud of ‘It Gets Better’ is now we are getting on the radio and on MuchMusic and hopefully on MTV. But it’s something that I did with all of the credibility intact when I made that song. There was no formula, there was not a formula to it where I said I’m going to make this song for business reasons. Underground rappers don’t make music for business reasons, that’s a pretty good way to sum it up.

Five quick questions, one word answers. Road or studio?
It truly depends. You named the two favourite things I love to do. Like right now I’m itching to get back on the road because I’ve been home for two months, which I will be on the road August 15^th for two months, across Canada, 40 shows, on the Lawn Mower Man Tour. Little plug there, I’m sorry.  But you know, the studio, when I write something that I love and just finish a song, man, there’s no high like that in the world. So, you just named the two things that I love most besides my family and my dog.

Lennon or McCartney?
Wow! I’ll go with McCartney just because I have a close friend that would go with Lennon and I’ll leave that to him.

Pac or Biggie?
Biggie. Oh, Pac’s so cool too! Yeah, I said Biggie I gotta go with Biggie. Musically, Biggie for me had the greatest songs so as a listener I had all Biggie’s albums. 2 Pac as a legend, as a persona, was larger than life and incredible.

When you hear a song what usually hits you first, lyrics, melody, or rhythm?
Well first I would say that the rhythm comes in but I’m always listening for lyrics, but the first thing is going to be the rhythm before the melody or the lyrics, always.

If someone has never heard Madchild’s music before, what song should they start with?
Good one. I’ll go with “Devil’s Reject.”

In one word… Madchild.
Warrior.
Madchild’s Lawn Mower Man is in stores August 6th and his cross-Canada tour kicks off August 15th in Vancouver.

 

Websites:

• madchild57.com
• ca.msn.com