By Malice Intended

Planet Ill:  What would you say is the biggest lesson you learned in the industry?

Sean Price:  I ain’t learn nothing from these niggas in this industry shit.  I learned that I don’t want nothing to do with it besides making this music and performing it.  I learned that.  You know what I mean?  I got no time for the fake s**t, the bulls**t.  You know what I mean?  I’m a grumpy old man.  The older I get the more anti-social I get.  The “Yo, my n***a, I love you man! Give me a call!”  Motherf**ker I don’t even have your number!  You know what I mean?  That’s what I learned, that the industry is full of s**t.  You know what I mean, so I’m a just do what I do.  Like I said, I got a circle of trust, a good team.  Dru-Ha, my peoples.  We going to keep doing what we do. I learned to keep my circle small, and keep it together as a tight knit family.  You know what I mean?  And if one falls off, the rest of us will pick up his slack so it still looks like he getting it.  Until he get his shit together.  A team effort.

Planet Ill:  What would you say is your best album, or is that yet to come?

Sean Price:  I don’t know how to answer that, man.  Every album is a feeling and a situation.  I did Monkey Barz I felt a certain way, and then when I did Jesus Price Supastar  I felt like I was bulls**tting with the first one so I came back quick with it.  Now with Mic Tyson, Kimbo Price, I just feel like fu**king s**t up right now.  So everything is a different vibe, different emotion.  I don’t know what’s my best work.  We don’t know.  I thought Donkey Sean Jr. was a good mix tape, and then Master P dropped.  Now Kimbo is out and people are already talking mixtape of the year, but I’m like the year aint over yet (laughs).

Planet Ill:  Since you’ve started, would you say the industry has changed for the better or for the worse?

Sean Price:  I don’t know if it’s better or worse.  Change is good.  You know what I mean?  Like I said, I’m a little older than some of these dudes.  When I would listen to music, dudes could rhyme (laughs).  You know what I mean?  That’s why you see Jay-Z; he came up around Jaz and Big Daddy Kane and them.  He from that cloth, of course he’s going to get busy.  You got to see the cloth of where some of these rappers is from.  Like C’mon man, you know what I mean?  Dudes can’t rhyme no more, you know what I mean?  People Singing.  You know, and you got the rap awards.  I don’t know.  That part of the game I see the change like, you don’t really have to rap no more to be a rapper.  I could just get me a Roger Troutman box and sing through it, you know what I mean, and call it rap.

Planet Ill:  The infamous Auto-tune.

Sean Price:  Not even getting on Auto-tune people because some of that s**t I like, you know what I mean?  Even with the Auto-Tune you got to have some level of talent.  Some people just sound horrible.  You know what I mean?  I have T-pain album, I think he’s dope.  I think the Auto-tune thing with him is great.  You know what I mean?  Some people, just stop.  Please.  What are you doing?

Planet Ill: That climate change in Hip-Hop, The fact that real lyrics and lyrical content aren’t valued anymore.  Who do you think is responsible for that change?  The corporations?  The labels? The Fans?  The artists themselves?

Sean Price:  It’s everybody fault.  It’s my fault.  It’s everybody fault.  I’m not just blaming one person.  Because you got to understand, I’m not dissing the older heads that’s before me but for every Rakim we had the Pee Wee dance.  I’m not saying that Joe Ski Love  is a wack rapper.  I’m just saying, we had that kind of music.  We had Scarface, we had this, that, then you had the Joe Ski Loves.  B-Fats, the Wop.  Stuff like that.  So, this era, that’s they version of that.  You know what I mean?

Like I said, it’s a fine line between dissing n***as and fucking they money up.  Do I listen to Soulja Boy?  Hell no.  Do my kids?  Hell yeah.  They love that s**t.  I’m not going to tell them “cut that bulls**t off”.  That’s what they want to listen to, that’s what they going to listen to.  You got to respect shorty.  He produce his own s**t and all that.  Get that money shorty, I’m proud of you.

Planet Ill:  You seem to be a man that truly lives by the mantra of “don’t knock the hustle”.

Sean Price:  You do your thing, I do mine man.  If yours work better than mine so be it.

Planet Ill:  Do you think that the game would be better off overall if more rappers adopted that attitude?

Sean Price:  It would be less hate.  Like I said, I’m practicing what I preach now.  Because I’ve said a few things like “get that s**t out of here” then I thought about it like “black man, he got to eat,” You know what I mean?

Planet Ill:  You seem to be very up front when it comes to beef.  Would you be able to reconcile with a rapper that you had beef with and do a song with him?

Sean Price:  Nah, if I have beef with a rapper we can never do songs again man.  You know what I mean?  Like I said man, I ain’t ultra gangsta man, but I been in these streets and I been in beef.  If it’s real beef, I don’t want to be your f**king friend man, I want you out of here.  Period, I’m dead ass serious.  I want you out of here.  I want you removed.  I’m not making up.  If I really don’t like you I’m not going to try to like you later.  F**k you and everything you stand for and everybody who look like you.  You understand what I’m saying?  I mean that s**t.  So nah, I don’t want to be your f**king friend, make a rap song together later.  F**k you B, and I mean that until I die.

Planet Ill:  Do you see that going on a lot in the industry?  Where dudes will talk behind each other’s back and not like each other, but still link up for the money?

Sean Price:  I’ve done that before!  That’s what I’m saying. I’m a victim of my own s**t!  Yeah I’ve done that before.  That s**t’s corny (laughs).  I’m different now though.  Before you check anybody else you got to check yourself.  Feel me?

Planet Ill:  If you had the chance, would take all of the fakeness and charades out of the industry and make it more real?

Sean Price:  I don’t care what people do, you know what I mean?  I just do what I do and hopefully people will catch on, and that will be the change right there.  You feel me?  I heard Jay-Z say we need a little council.  Maybe we do.  You know what I mean?  But otherwise I don’t tell nobody what to do and I don’t give a f**k what they do.  As long as you don’t f**k with me and mines, stop me and mines from getting what we need to get.  Enjoy your life man, I don’t give a f**k.  I ain’t got to answer to nobody but my wisdom and my kids.  F**k everybody else, man.

Planet Ill:  Do you think the Hip-Hop media hurt or help Hip-Hop?  

Sean Price:  Both.  You got Worldstar, Vlad, On Smash.  A lot of stuff.  It’s cool to watch that stuff.  Then you got certain Hip-hop DVD’s with a dude flashing his felonies in front of the camera and stuff.  It should be a limit to certain things.  You know what I mean?  Don’t incriminate yourself.  Then you got the Twitter.  I hate twitter.  It should be some exclusivity.  Like, I’m a Rakim Allah fan.  The last thing I would want to see is “@Rakim Allah: Yo, I’m in the crib studying 120.”  I don’t want to know that man, you know what I mean (laughs)? 

Planet Ill:  Is there anything else you would like to say to the readers of Planet Ill and to your fans in general?

Sean Price:  First of all I’d like to thank you.  This was a good interview, because I get a lot of bulls**t interviews.  I don’t even like doing press days.  There will be a hundred n***as asking me the current state of Hip-Hop, so I appreciate you giving me a real interview.  For real.  Everybody else, I hope you like the mix tape and other stuff.  If not, I got some more dropping and maybe you’ll like that.  Like my man Steele told me it gets greater later.  Stay tuned.

SEAN PRICE: THE PLANETILL INTERVIEW PART 1

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