Apathy - ? Kong (2011) August 23rd, Receives 8.5/10. Interview and Videos Inside

A spammer/promoter stopped by with a link to this interview, it's something that I think some posters would enjoy so I did ask the bot/spammer/promoter to redo the thread with the full interview included and videos, but there's been no sign of that happening; so here's the interview with Apathy:

411mania.com had a chance to sit down with underground rapper Apathy. Listen as he discusses his upcoming album ? Kong, working with DJ Premier, fans showing respect, original ideas for releasing albums, dealing with depression, parting ways with Atlantic Records, plus much more!

Apathy is a rapper from Connecticut who has seen his ups and down in the music business. He was at one time signed to Atlantic Records, where he witnessed first hand the politics involved in the music business. His debut album was constantly delayed and at the end of the day he parted ways with the label, simply because he could not come to an agreement in terms to the direction his music should take. Apathy decided, in order to have complete control over his sound he would have to stay underground and independent. He has started to garner some attention with his latest album ? Kong set to drop on August 23rd. The album features some of the top artists and producers in hip hop today, including DJ Premier, Ill Bill, DJ Muggs, Xzibit, Celph Titled and more. We had a chance to sit down with Apathy for an interview regarding his upcoming album. You can listen to the entire interview or read the transcript below.

Your new album, ? Kong comes out August 23, tell us a little bit about the album.

Apathy: It's an album that goes to my ? roots, its ? hip hop. I tried to make the album as classic as possible. I worked with a ton of producers, artists I look up to, respect and in some cases idolize, you know? So this album for me has been kind of a dream come true.

You have been getting more and more into the production end of your music. Why have you started working more on the production side of music?

Apathy: On Wanna Snuggle, I produced the majority of the album. I have actually taken a backseat on this album. On Wanna Snuggle, I produced 80% of the album, and on this one I wanted to slow it down and work with other people.

People don't really know me for my production, but i do tons and tons of production that people are not really aware of like for Cypris Hill, I worked with Scoop Deville on a Busta Rhymes record that hasn't come out yet. I think people sleep on it for the most part. I love production, I mean that's my favourite thing, but I think it has yet to be seen as something that I do, since people right now notice me more for the rap.

Would you say that you like production better then rapping?

Apathy: Ya I think now, because with rap I'm so desensitized to it and I'm so used to it then production. I have more fun doing production. I have more fun with putting little sounds, and doing little things and sequencing. Not every time, but most of the time when you hear a beat and I work with a producer, I do a lot of ? anyway, I will do post production, I am very, very hands on in a Dr. Dre type way. It s never to the point where I get a beat from somebody and rock over it and they just produce it, I am a super doper hands on artist.

You have a record on ? kong, "Stop What Your Doing" which is produced by DJ Premier. How did you and Premier hook up?

Apathy: Premier had played my records in the past, first of all let me say that Premier is like my biggest dream in hip hop, he is my favourite producer of all time. If I had a top 10 list, Premier occupies like the first three spots, like number 1, 2, and 3 is Premier. The biggest thing is that he played my records and he had heard my records because DJ Eclipse had really put him onto my ? . Then DJ Eclipse facilitated a meeting at one point. I met Premier at a show and Premier had given me props for the record I did with B-Real over the Mike Shinoda beat, "Shoot First" with Celph Titled on it. Premier said he loved that record and had been playing that record, and he asked when we were going to do a record. I said are you kidding me, as soon as possible. So DJ Eclipse helped facilitate that whole thing as well and hooked that up and then Prem and I stated to build and talk, and I established a relationship with Premier and it was unbelievable.

So did you have the idea for the sample on the hook or how does it work when premier makes a track for you?

Apathy I don't know what he does for other artists, but for that specific song I asked him to do that hook, the stop what your doing Humpty ? , I asked him if that could work. What ended up happening is he sent me a beat first that was a very interesting, a chill piano beat, and I liked it, it was dope, but it just wasn't what I was going for on the album. It didn't match my style so I asked him if he could send me something else and he sent me another beat, which was, I told him what I wanted, in something crazy, blow your head off pump up the crowd, super energy joint so then he hooked up "Stop What Your Doing" and I came with him for the idea for the hook and he cut up the hook and that s how it happened.


You have released your first video from the album, "Check To Check", do you have any more plans to make some videos?

Apathy: Definitely, Celph Titled is flying up here in mid August and we are going to do a video for "Stop What Your Doing". We are going to hook up with Premier, we gonna do that video that is going to be crazy, that's going to be done by Ricky Shabazz and the boom bap boy. I also did a video that my man Open Mike did for "Peace Connecticut" off the album.

I definitely plan on doing more, and I am going to more I just haven't decided which i want to do now. I definitely want to do a video for the DJ Muggs track "Fear Itself", I got a whole bunch of people stepping to me for videos I just haven't decided which one i want to do and which ones will be the best.

The track "It's Only Hip Hop" has you talking about how fans act when they approach you and your interactions with fans. What has been your strangest interaction you have had with a fan?

Apathy Ummm my strangest interaction with a fan just happened recently, I've had a whole bunch of stuff that's just been odd, i was just out in Europe and the dudes will come up to you and ask you for a sip of their drink. It's definitely a different social cultural practise, it was definitely shocking. I had some really weird ? , recently there was a show there was just a chick, just a fan, she was just very odd, she was kind of overstepping her bounds in some cases, like my girl was there at the show and ? , and things were just getting weird. I think she was on some type of drug. She kept asking me if i liked all her clothes and all her stuff, it was just tripped out. That was probably my weirdest, I don't want to get into too much detail and reveal who that is, but was very odd ? . That song is not just about weird interactions with fans, it's just about a generalized idea about how certain fans, just overstep their boundaries in terms of cockiness, like coming up to me being like ‘what's up Chad?', I'm like ‘Yo I didn't ? grow up with you, i don't know you like that, I have no idea why you are calling me Chad right now.' I don't dislike my own name but you don't know me like that.

It's just about being professional

Apathy Exactly.

If fans order your new album ? Kong from online, they will also receive the free Primate Mindstate EP. Tell us a little about that album.

Apathy: Primate Mindstate is songs that i had either done earlier or songs that didn't fit in with ? Kong. Mostly that's what it is, they just didn't fit in with ? Kong. They are dope ass songs, like I got a song I did on there with Scoop Deville, I got a song I did with Eternia and Diabolic produced by Moss, I got other songs I previously released, like "Make Alotta Money" and "East Coast ? ", but for the most part its just songs that didn't fit into the sequencing , that I wish could have made it onto ? Kong, but for one reason or another didn't make it on there.

You are also releasing the album on a special beeper style USB. Why did you decide to do that?

Apathy: Yup. When I did my group Get Busy Committee we did a USB of the album in the shape of an uzi, the album was called Uzi Does It, I just wanted to just continue releasing clever things, for the buyer that is a little more interesting things for kids to cop, I mean you can just drop cd's and ? , but that gets boring, and tired after a while. I mean I wanted to do something fresh and fun, and the era of the beepers was a real dope time period, in the 90's if you had a beeper that was some fly ? , so i just wanted to have fun and put the album on something that looked fresh, so I did something original.

At the end of the album you have the posse cut "Army of the Gods". Is that somewhat of a prelude to the upcoming Demigodz album?

Apathy: Yup. No not really, I mean those are my people and my family and i just wanted to have a joint that was like, you know my biggest inspiration for that was back in the day, on Busta Rhymes first solo album, he was doing "Flipmode Meets Def Squad". It was mad people on it, and I wanted a joint like that. It's not every Demigod and it's not everyone in Army of the Pharaohs, but it's a lot.

ty the great wrote: »

Album is fairly good, nothing too special tho, so about what you would expect. The guests bring out the best in Ap a lot of the times. Its really exactly what you would expect, except maybe the beats were a little underwhelming. Not as good as Eastern Philosophy, better than Wanna Snuggle.

Too much music dropped this past week; I'm way behind. Props on the synopsis, doesn't sound like this should be at the top of my listening list though.