By Odeisel

Planet Ill took in the Random Axe listening event earlier in the week, and we caugth up with Guilty Simpson after the show. The event was sponsored by Jose Cuervo Platino, so after a few hours, everyone there was having a good time but Guilty held it together long enough to get us hip to the meaning of his name, the source of his hunger, and the struggle to represent for Detroit when you’re not on team Shady or aligned with a major.

Planet Ill: Guilty Simpson. Where did that name derive?

Guilty Simpson: Guilty was my name since I first started rhyming.  I never had any other name. At the time, I had heard a group out of Ohio might have called themselves “The Guilty” like four years after I was into the name.  I just added my last name to it to make it official.

Planet Ill: So your real name is Simpson?

Guilty Simpson: Yeah, yeah.

Planet Ill: So it ain’t got nothing to do with OJ?

Guilty Simpson: It’s just a coincidence you know? I just thought it would spark a little conversation and people would be like, “Guilty Simpson? Who OJ?” Nah, Guilty Simpson. It’s just a coincidence. Even OJ Simpson, the project I did with Madlib, his name is Otis Jackson, and people that are close to him refer to him as OJ. So when he does his production, he’s OJ and I’m Simpson.

Planet Ill: First time I saw you, was SXSW in 2008 and it was DuckDown Vs. Stones Throw showcase.

Guilty Simpson: Ah yeah I remember! First and only time in Austin, too.

Planet Ill: How do you take that name and then you get on stage and put that energy out?

Guilty Simpson: I think it’s just the hunger man. Just knowing that at any day, a fan could be like, “You know what? That n***a’s wack now!” I’ve witnessed it so many times, a rapper that I idolized might have lost his edge. I’m not necessarily fair-weather to the to the point of like he’s wack but just that risk of not being felt is enough to keep me motivated; keep my pen right. To understand that the first thing that I think might not be the best rhyme to make.

I’m convinced that a lot of these rappers, the very first thing they think, they write. Just the risk of that, and me being from Detroit and understanding that, you know it’s rappers in Detroit that never make it out of the city limits. I understand the opportunity I have, that’s enough to keep me motivated all the time.

Planet Ill: With so much talent from Detroit, why do you think it is that it hasn’t made that push as a unit?

Guilty Simpson: I think it’s strategy. What a lot of these rappers aim to do. Some fo these rappers are content with being one of the freshest in the club. I always felt like being in the club…it felt so small to me. It felt like so many more people needed to hear what we was doing. So what I did was I separated myself from the club and the repetition that a lot of these other artists was doing and I just took my strategy outside the box and just think like how can I reach the masses? How can somebody out-of-state know what I’m doing with the music? Once I took that approach, it didn’t necessarily work right away, but once I took that approach and was dedicated to it, that format eventually paid off.

Planet Ill: How hungry is Guilty Simpson?

Guilty Simpson: Starving. I don’t think I’ll ever not be hungry. Especially with the music and stuff and the situation we came from, we were so used to being hungry that I can never relate to not being hungry. Even though I travel and do all this stuff, I might see somebody at home that might not have been able to do the things that I did, they motivate me. So once I tap into the mind frame that they might be in, I was able to recapture that hunger I once had and I still have. I thought it was more intense at one point, you know, I had never done an out-of-state show or done any shit like that. Once that came into the fold it was really easy to stay focused.

Planet Ill: What’s the difference between Detroit and places like Flint, where people haven’t really had that scene?

Guilty Simpson: If you’ve ever been to Flint, I don’t know if you have, but it’s very small. I don’t know if Flint has any kind of musical outlet. As bad as we think we might have it in Detroit, I don’t know if it’s as bad as Flint. And I don’t want to say city-wise, I mean outlet wise for their artists. That’s why I give props to Top Authority or a Breed, or Tone Trump, my man Daru who plays drums for Black Milk, right now to this day, and a lot of people that came from Flint. I think we relate to the same kind of struggle but at the same time I think Flint is a little more restrained with what they can do. But we still breed the same hunger. Like I said I’m happy to be in the situation I’m in with Detroit and hopefully what I do can make it easy for all Michigan artists, not just Detroit. That’s Flint included, Saginaw, I got family in the Sagnasty, and Pontiac.

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