9th Wonder - New Interview Talks Alter-Ego, Troy Davis and the Definition of Soul

Enter the mind of 9th Wonder. Learn his thoughts about the Troy Davis case, what he wants the youth to know about Hip Hop, his definition of the word soul and his views on success.

Erin: It’s a pretty big day for you. I remember awhile back you said that you weren’t sure if The Wonder Years would ever come out. How do you feel now that it’s completed?

9th: Relieved (laughs). It’s something that I’ve been working on, off and on for the past three or four years now and it just changed so much over time. Like the first version of Wonder Years was not this version at all. It has different songs and everything. It’s just a relief I can get back to what I’m really focused on right now, which is my artists. When you do albums, people expect you to do something and it’s like a cloud over your head. The people just want it out and that’s how it goes.

Erin: You have the Wonder Year documentary showing in North Carolina again, this time Raleigh. It’s continuing to show nationwide on later dates. What experience do you want your audience to walk away with?

9th: Well the first time we showed it was in my hometown in Winston Salem, NC back in April, and we’ve been showing it all over the place up until this point. This time I think it’s more tied to the releasing of my album, to give it more of a second debut. The main thing that people can get from the movie is inspiration. People keep saying, “I’m inspired, I’m inspired.” And that’s exactly what I wanted them to get from it. Not necessarily from a Hip Hop sense but more of a do anything that you want to do with your life type of film. It’s not a Hip Hop movie, you know? It’s an “Ok you have a dream, and whatever you want to do you can do it.” That’s exactly what I want people receive from the movie. I also wanted to humanize… I think there’s part of Hip Hop that has a human element to it. That everyone no matter if you’re young and black, or you’re old and white, can relate to. I wanted people to get the human aspect out of it. Every time that I’ve shown it, people that ask me the most questions are not my age, nor my color. Sometimes those people don’t ask those questions because they are afraid to sound ignorant or racist. They are trying to choose their words wisely. But I think I explained things in the movie to the point where you can ask questions that relate to Hip Hop and inspiration.

Erin: That’s awesome. You do a lot of work with the youth in your area and that you are trying to bring back an element of Hip Hop that the youth have forgotten. So what do you want the youth to get from your album but also what do you think they should absolutely know about Hip Hop?

9th: Well what they should get out of my album is just the sense of being able to listen to a record without taking it out. Or as close as possible to it, you know? When everything has become so microwaveable, we’ve gotten away from albums being experiences. Now they’ve just become a collection of songs. The reasons that we have the Snoop’s, the Nas’, the Kanye’s and even the Drake’s is because their music art is an experience. Thank Me Later was an experience… it was an event. It wasn’t just a collection of songs. You’re entering into the world of Drake. You understand what I’m saying? That’s what I think is missing in a lot of albums that are released now — they aren’t an experience. The Chronic was an experience, College Dropout was an experience. And that’s what I want kids to take out of it. What do I think they should know? Well I think there are two sides to it. You have a lot of kids that don’t know, but it’s not their fault. They don’t know where to start to look. You have to understand a lot of these kids were born in ‘93, ‘94, ‘95; my son was born in ‘95. It’s hard for them to know where to look unless they have some guidance to tell them where to look. My son knows where to look because I showed him. At six years old, I bought him a clean copy of Illmatic. All kids don’t have that. They don’t have that privilege; they don’t have someone to show them exactly where to start. But I think that’s starting to change now because you’re now in the age of “The Hip Hop Parent.” You have thirty year olds now with two children. They ride in the car in the morning and their mom and dad are listening to Nas. I ask kids who are nine years old what they like and their like “New Edition” and it’s from being brainwashed by their parents. And it happened to us too. When we were 6 or 7, we were listening to Michael Jackson and Earth Wind and Fire. I know a lot of their songs and a lot of Motown because of my parents. I think it’s all about what they are exposed to and we can’t blame them for the things they aren’t exposed to.

Erin: I definitely agree. So you are the first Hip Hop Ambassador for the NAACP and very involved. The NAACP was extremely active in the Troy Davis case. What are your thoughts and feelings about his case, post his execution?

9th: There aren’t too many people in history I’ve read about who have maintained their innocence until the point of death. Normally if you did it eventually you would come out and “Sorry I did it…yahdayaya.” I think this case is different and I think they are going to find exactly who did it. It reminds me of a case in Winston-Salem by the name of Daryl Hunt who was in jail for 18-19 years for the murder of a woman. And while he was in jail around the 18th year after so much of his life had been taken away from him, someone else confessed to the murder. During the Troy Davis case, I was watching television thinking that our media is great for overplaying everything. We just are to the point where the media has no filter now. I was on Twitter like, “Man I’m moving to Canada.” The media is going to juice every aspect of things they can, no matter who it affects. And they all do it under the pretence of “freedom of speech. And it’s funny the way it works like that. I just feel for both of the families, I really do. They both wanted justice; I think they both lost in this case. One family wanted closure and the other wanted Troy to be freed.

Erin: It was very unfortunate. On a more positive note, In The Wonder Years you only rap on one song. And when you do emcee, you go under the alias of 9thmatic. Is there a character difference between him and 9th Wonder?

9th: I think just the fact that I decided to open my mouth on the microphone shows a difference in character (laughs). It just changes the whole scope of everything. It’s like as soon I decide to pick up a microphone, it’s like “Okay, you’ve changed already because we’ve only seen you talk in interviews, not on a microphone rhyming.” As far as subject matter goes they’re nothing alike. The thing that rappers get to do that producers don’t, they talk about what aggravates that they have all the time — “I got bills, I got that.” Producers don’t get to get to do that. You have to read about what we do, you know? Or we’ll lucky enough for a big artist to say our name on a track. We don’t get to tell you what we do on the daily as opposed to a rapper. So for me, I just talk about what I’ve done or what I want to do. I’m not really good at lying, like some rappers are. At this point I’m 36 years old, what the ? am I lying for? I just talk about my life.

Erin: Speaking of your life, it has changed a lot in the last few years. If you could have an album be the soundtrack for your life, what would it be and why?

9th: I’m going to say Mecca & the Soul Brother. The Native Tongues movement in the early ‘90’s with Tribe, you know cats were wearing dashikis and beads and everything. I loved the music but I didn’t fall in love with the look, it was a little too far left for me. But I loved the music. Then on the flip side of that were Redman and Mobb Deep. They were street and I loved the music. But I’m from Winston-Salem so I wasn’t really a part of that world either. Mecca & the Soul Brother had the soul, it was grown man and it was jazzy. I’m from the country but that’s who I am — soulful enough but also street enough. I’m not more on the bohemian side or way on the street side. I go about the world of both and I’m somewhere in the middle… that’s Mecca & the Soul Brother.

Erin: I can dig it. I notice that you say soul a lot. You teach a class called “Sampling Soul,” and you also created the “Soul Council.” There are various meanings of the word, so what exactly is SOUL to you?

9th: I think it’s a feeling. Soul music is a feeling that needs no additives or preservatives, meaning you don’t need any type of alcohol or other substance to enjoy it. It’s a sunny day, a ride in the car man; it’s a cookout, a picnic or a funeral. All of that stuff is life music, it’s dealing with life. A lot of stuff now only reaches the surface, it does something for the surface and that’s it. It serves its purpose to get you to a certain point, whether you’re trying to be ? or be high. And that’s it. Soul music does more than that. You can raise your kids to soul music; you can get married to soul music. The real life stuff that people don’t think is cool to talk about in Hip Hop, or don’t think is cool to experience. You know some of these young cats in the game are too young to really experience that. Not to say that they don’t but they are just in a different state, they want to talk about having a good time. But for a lot of us who are a little older, you want something that means a lot more because you never know how long you’re going to be here. You just start reflecting on a lot of other stuff in your life. That’s what soul music is, that’s what it means to me, and that’s what I choose to be a part of.