Planet Ill: What could a label actually do for you?

Mekka Don: That’s a great question. I think that the best situation with me for a label would be some type of partnership situation. Here’s where I think the labels can really help me. The marketing and the engine they have that they’ve used for years and they have contacts within the industry. They have a formula that doesn’t work 100% of the time but it definitely works. As far as radio promotion, it’s hard to do on your own. It’s even harder when you’re an independent artist in terms of marketing, as far as getting your name out there; getting your name out to the right people. Also getting you coverage in certain types of media forums.

It’s rare, very rare, but not impossible to see an artist on MTV or BET or those high level formats without some type of label behind them. And also, I think you fight this as an independent artist but there’s a certain type of legitimacy that I think being on a label gets for an artist. It’s interesting to see the difference in the way people treat someone who’s independent vs. someone who’s on a label. Even if the quality of the music isn’t different there’s just a certain level of legitimacy.

And also distribution. Now with digital distribution, I’m on iTunes, so there’s not much they can necessarily do there, but there are also other formats. I don’t have physical cds. They also have creative and innovative ways of getting music out. We definitely could do something. I don’t feel like I don’t need  a label, but I feel like I could definitely do a lot without one. That’s kind fo how I operate now.

Planet Ill: Who are you as an artist?

Mekka Don: Well-rounded, diverse, passionate. Someone who can speak on a wide array of topics because I have a wide array of experiences. I don’t like to be confined; I don’t like to be put in a box. I think people expect because I’m an attorney, that they are going to hear from me, legalese or they’re going to hear me preaching all the time. The honest thing is, like you said, I’m also an athlete. I was also a party promoter. I’m a person who likes to have fun also. In a way, I’m not comparing myself to Tupac, but I’m  giving Tupac as an example of someone where you can hear “Dear Mama” on one song and then you can hear “Ain’t Nothing But a Gangsta Party”[“2 Of America’s Most Wanted”] and  another song. It’s still the same artist. And some people view that as a contradiction; I view it more as someone who has a complex personality. And that’s me so whatever inspires me, I’m going to write about but it’s always going to be driven by passion.

Planet Ill: How do Africans view the word nigger? When foreign Black people get exposed to that nigger treatment in America how do they react? Did your parents ever talk to you about it?

Mekka Don: My dad is very cognizant of race and race relations in America and also the world. He’s a political science professor and also someone involved in sociology. So he always wanted to make us, whether it was the word nigger or whether it was racism in itself, he always wanted to make sure that we were very cognizant of how race factored into how we were being treated and how society works in this country.

I think the word nigger itself didn’t really give them the same type of rise that it gives your average Black American and part of the reason is it wasn’t a word that they in Nigeria had attached so much significance to. But I do think that the word itself is symbolic of racism so they still did take offense to it. It was something that they knew was offensive. But I think that my dad wanted us to make sure… he wanted us to know what it meant to be a Black man in this society. And know that for the most part you’re fighting an uphill battle.

There are some people that are going to treat you a certain way and are not expecting a certain level of intelligence from you. And there are certain people that are going to treat you a certain way regardless of your level of intelligence. Be careful about putting yourself in situations where you give somebody else the power to dictate the outcome. Just always stay true to yourself and don’t feel like you have to conform to mainstream society.  And lastly, I’ll say as far as the culture in terms of how I was raised, I think they definitely raised me with strict Nigerian values as far as what we ate. Nigerian food, who we were around, the parties we went to. The strong emphasis on education by any means.

Those things were definitely instilled in us but I think that I’m the youngest so they started to give me a certain level of freedom when I was growing up . Because they had been here and by the time I was pretty young they had been here for 15-20 years so I think that they had adjusted their mindsets in a way. Now I think they’re even much more level in terms of what they are willing to accept. I can’t imagine my dad’s mindset 30 years ago, and me making the decision I made 30 years ago. I can’t imagine what the uproar would have been

Planet Ill: It would have been HELL NO!

Mekka Don: Exactly! Another thing too that I want to touch on real quick, with my parents is that I feel like over time, I’ve developed a certain amount of trust with them to where they trust my decision making. It doesn’t mean that they’re not scared, but they trust that when I make decisions I’m making them with the right intentions and the right reasons. It’s not like I dropped out of law school and then went and pursued this. I went to law school, I finished, I took the Bar, I passed it, I worked, got on my resume and then I decided this. I basically put myself in a position where it’s hard for them to say anything to me. You can express your disappointment but I’m not asking you for money for bills, I didn’t drop out of school, I still have those degrees that you wanted me to get., I still have my resume, you can’t ever take that from me. I keep myself current with the law at the Bar of New York.

If I were to advise someone, in this situation, I would advise them to set themselves up first before they make such a leap. Because at the end of the day, although my back is against the wall because I left the firm, my back isn’t entirely against the wall because I do have something that, if all else fails I  have something that can help me find my way.

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