By Elianne Halbersberg

Brooklyn rapper Poison Pen has been an audience favorite since he first appeared on the hip-hop scene in the mid-1990s. Last year, he released his long-awaited solo debut album, The Money Shot, the logical next step in a career that has included radio, video, mixtapes, guest appearances and blogging.

Planet Ill presents a rewind with Poison Pen, as he takes us into the studio, online and wherever else his creative mind wandered during the course of conversation.

Planet Ill: What were your goals going into the studio to make this album?

Poison Pen: My goal was to make a complete project. I’m known for a lot of mixtapes and feature work on other people’s records. I write my own rhymes, but if I’m in the studio doing another project, I write what they direct me to do. This project is cohesive effort showing different sides of Pen’s persona. I’m a Brooklyn brother, and the music is pretty much me rapping where I’m from.

I wanted to step up my game as far as production quality and what people are used to hearing from an “underground” artist. Don’t put me in a bucket because you heard me with this artist who has this audience. I do it all and I just like to entertain people. I want to be respected for my craft, but I want you to have fun when you hear my stuff. To make sure it evokes emotion, like a movie, I’m visual in what I say and do. I am trying to bring the vision to my music so you can see what I’m saying.

Planet Ill: You’ve done some blogging on hiphopgame.com.

Poison Pen:  That website, yeah, they’d interviewed me a lot. I’m a candid dude and my interviews are always a good read. I say what I feel and I like to have fun. Everything in my blog is what it is, drunk stories, like a movie. A lot of people don’t understand my humor. I’m not gangsta, but I’m not happy pop. It’s street, and people don’t get the humor. I’m not angry. I’m just a rowdy dude who likes to have fun and let people know it.

Planet Ill: Are you big on technology or are you still old-schooling it?

Poison Pen: I do everything. My posse would do it in the studio with tape. With Pro Tools and everything, when I collaborate now, it’s, “Have your manager call my manager; e-mail me a verse.” I don’t like making music like that. If I’m in New York and the guy is in L.A., I’m not going to fly there to do one verse. But with my people we were all there together, listening and writing together, and laying verses together. That’s the real way to do music to me. Not, “I’ve got $3000, I’m gonna call T.I. I need a verse.” To me, that’s not what a real collaboration is, so in that way I’m old school, although I definitely utilize new technology.

Planet Ill: You’ve been doing this for a long time. How has the industry changed?

Poison Pen: One of the major things to me is that the Internet replaced the streets. Before, you had to be out there, locking down your territory. You had to be at every show, perform, show your face and get around. If there was a show on one side of town, you had to be there, then be at another one on the other side of town on the same night, stake your claim and build up. Now, with Internet access, Garageband and e-mail, people have to be in every blog. It took over the planet. Without it, you don’t have anything.

People think they’re poppin’ in the street, but they’re a big fish in a small pond. They go to certain cities and think they’re Elvis, then they do a show in that city and there’s 20 people there. The Internet is smoke and mirrors, having people think you’re doing good when you’re really not doing shit. It’s a good way to promote, because before you had to service DJs, send music out, spend postage and work your region. If you hit Virginia, it took weeks to get to New York. When Master P came out, it took months before people were talking about it.

My cousin, rest in peace, would tell me and I’d say, “I ain’t heard that shit,” then a month later I heard it and he said, “I told you.” Now, an e-mail blast and it’s in Poland, Soweto and New York. It dilutes the game, too, because anybody can do it. You used to have to earn your stripes. Now, you’ve got an Internet connection, let’s go. You’ve got to wade through so much trash to get to anything remotely decent.

Planet Ill: There’s got to be pressure when you’re paring 50 songs down to 15 or 16. What are you looking for?

Poison Pen: First, they’ve got to flow together. If you have three great songs and they’re not cohesive, they don’t belong on the same project. Sometimes a great song doesn’t fit and we leave it off. I’ve got a manager and a few colleagues whose opinions I respect. We sit down and see what works, what we should hold to the side. Whack shit goes in the garbage. I make more good than garbage, but sometimes it doesn’t work. Sometimes you switch the order. It’s a process. I recorded a gang of songs for this project and a lot of them didn’t make it. Some will end up on mixtapes.

Planet Ill: You’ve been able to hold on to your career, and these days, that’s saying something.

Poison Pen: I just know that persistence beats resistance. A lot of people have talent but they don’t have drive. Just because you know how to rap doesn’t mean rap is your career path. It may be a stepping-stone. Andre Harrell started out in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde 1986. Nobody knows the record, but André stepped back, started Uptown Records and hired Puff, who formed Bad Boy. Nobody remembers André as a rapper. His path was to use that and build another career for himself. I love to talk shit, so rap is what I do. I could hate it tomorrow. I’ve been doing it for so long that I doubt I’ll just stop, but it’s not meant for everybody to do forever and not because you aren’t good. Look at Ma$e. Now he’s in the church. It leads to other things sometimes. Jay-Z looks at doing other things, like fucking Beyonce, which is a great career path in itself.

Planet Ill: Hits happen, people want to know you, guys want to hang out with you, women want to fuck you. How do you stay grounded?

Poison Pen: That’s the thing. It’s not in my nature. I’m not a superstar. I don’t need security or get followed down the street by camera crews. If I had gold or platinum albums it would be a way higher level, but I know this is here today and gone tomorrow. A lot of dudes who did who good in 2001 are struggling. It can go so quick. People have a short attention span and they’re fickle. If you believe your hype and your shit, you’re finished. I’m a regular dude. Anybody can come up and speak to me.

Planet Ill: Except Spike Lee. [Note: Pen has a long-lasting bone to pick with Lee, whom he says ran from him on a street in Manhattan when Pen simply attempted a hello several years back.]

Poison Pen: I’m still holding a grudge. I was really offended. Shit like that … he’s rooting for the Lakers now. He used to be front row for the Knicks. He’s in L.A., switch-siding it. I knew he wasn’t real. He hasn’t made a movie in so long. He’s a fraud. He’ll direct one of my videos one day, just watch. He comes up to my elbow. That’s probably why he ran.

I just really know that there’s times and places I go where people are happy to see me, but when I get on the train in Manhattan and ride home, people don’t give a fuck, they’re not “Oh, Poison Pen!” Somebody might shake my hand, but that’s it. You’ve got to be grounded. You’re not always going to be hot, and I’m not super-hot anyway.

More people know me than before, I played for 7000 people in Columbia, and I come to New York and play for 400 people, and that’s good. People have to stop believing their own hype, and don’t shit on people just for the sake of shitting on them, and you’ll be OK. “Please” and “thank you” go a long way, too. I do have manners and I respect everybody. I might not like everybody, but I give them respect. Hopefully I won’t become a huge egomaniacal bastard.

Planet Ill: Tell our readers something about yourself that you think they should know.

Poison Pen: Don’t judge a book by its cover. Looks can be deceiving. Every 6-foot-tall, 300-pound dude is not a monster. Some of us are nice, good people. I’m not perfect, but I’m a good dude. I don’t spew lies and paint a persona that’s not me. At the same time, it is entertainment, and if we’d all view it as such, we’d all be better off.

Elianne Halbersberg is a freelance writer whose work has been published by Guitar Edge, Mix, Premier Guitar, Gibson.com, Electronic Musician, Audio Media, Ink 19 and numerous other magazines and websites.

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