First, tell us about where you’re coming from. What kind of life you live?

Yejide: I’m coming straight from Brooklyn NYC. Born and raised here with a stint in Hollis & Laurelton, Queens. My lifestyle is quite unorthodox. I’m Muslim by nature with Rastafari tendencies, but I respect all methods of spirituality and denounce the ‘business of religion’. I’m a single parent of two very intelligent and respectful youths and I concentrate most of my energy on raising them correctly. They know about Cannabis and know I smoke from time to time. My life is easy on the brain because I refuse to get stressed about money, clothes, relationships and other people’s opinions of me. I’m not into advertising European designers. My style is a basically ‘African-Native Indian Grunge’. Money will never make me do something morally wrong to attain it, even when I need it really bad. ” I stay broke still I maintain my roots…” I’m enjoying me & my new found inr-chi, right now and when that right MAN comes through, he’ll holla. Other people – they can love me or leave me alone. I see most love me and I love them right back. I’ve been through many hard times in my life and now, I am completing my cipher on a better note.

What inspires you artisitically?

Yejide: My children inspire me to write the way I do (the lack of profanity, at least) and my parents inspire me to teach elders how we (the younger generation) do. Nature and Africa inspire me to be the ‘artistic’ me and find out who I am according to the universe and the studies of certain sciences. Major inspiration comes from the so-called artists who speak on things they know nothing about, the so-called righteous cats who want to pigeonhole positive artists and the youth who are conditioned to think knowledge, wisdom and understanding are irrelevant compared to material gain, money and sex…they inspire me to teach and show both ‘real’ sides of life, not the sensationalized life of a rapper, nor the constantly righteous ‘underground’ Hip Hop lyricist.

Having been educated in criminal justice, what do you think are the most urgent problems within the U.S. justice system?

Yejide: The US Justice system’s first fault is thinking that the US has preference by God to do what they want when they want. This war is an example – diversion to get the oil from the Middle East, while controlling another country with a puppet government. The second problem is the racial composition of the criminal justice system as well as the rate of recidivism for repeat offenders. I see major problems with the fact that prisons don’t rehabilitate but warehouse criminals, giving them no way to function upon their release. Many want to do the right thing by being law-abiding citizens, but if they don’t learn a skill or vocation in prison, they have no choice but to survive doing what they know, which is illegal. And eventhough the world makes it’s plea to release political prisoners, the US government thinks it has the right to ignore THE WORLD and do what they want. If the government is for us, then it should listen to us and act accordingly.

How do you feel about the criminal-minded themes in hip-hop today? Why do you think those themes are so popular with the fans?

Yejide: They don’t bother me and I actually appreciate the balance. Everything is not happy go lucky. But when that’s all I can get on the radio, on the video shows, everyday, every hour and the youth know every word and try to emulate these rappers, (men & women) it almost enfuriates me. The criminal minded way of life is so prevalent in our music that our youth feel they have to live up to the bad guy, drug dealer, womanizer or ho stereotype, which becomes motivation to live fast and be a good looking corpse. The themes are popular because in the predominantly brown inner cities where most of these stories happen, that’s how it goes down, for real. Not everyone does it but most kids know who the local dealer, crackhead, thief, bootlegger, etc. is and they see what each one looks like and how much they got at the end of the day. Radio stations take pride in taking the money under the table to promote this music but you can’t find Apani, myself, INI MLD, Duo Live, Stahhr the Femcee or C Rayz Walz on the radio. Parents don’t monitor what their children listen to nor do they have control over their children like our elders had with us. The respect factor is GONE and it’s evident in the videos and the lyrics. Some parents don’t set examples for their children, especially when the adults are groovin to the music and not explaining that this is entertainment.

If there was only one message that you could successfully get across to your audience, what would it be?

Stop being a sheep and think for yourself. On every level people are forcefeeding you what is supposedly “cool” and what isn’t. Independent is the same way. If we as a world keep subscribing to the mtv branding philosophy, we will lose all ability for independent thinking, and will become a society of just clones, all programmed to do the same shit, and think the same way. In this rap shit people have these preconceived notions of what things are supposed to sound like, and what makes things more real and authentic, instead of just listening to the music and passing their own judgment. It’s turning into a high school popularity contest or something, and marketing, more than actual talent. but that’s what Third Earth is here for, and that’s why I respect the Def Jux’s, the Rhymesayers, the Hieroglyphics of this world for doing what they want to do regardless of what people think, and pushing the music forward.

What did you guys study in school? How has it influenced your music?

I was an African-American studies, and an english major. Mainly cause although my folks taught me a lot of history, I wasn’t exposed to it so much in high school. You know during black history month we would talk about how great Martin Luther King was, and that was it. So I figured I would research more when I went to college. I also studied women a lot, and learned a lot of things, plus I ran a hip-hop magazine where people could get credit for writing, and I was a dj on the radio station until I got kicked off for playing too much profanity without disclaimers. It was a very wholesome experience. If it wasn’t for Wesleyan I wouldn’t have met Tarik, and we would have never started Masterminds.

Suppose the Masterminds and Third Earth Music become the owners of the next media mega-corporation, and you have a virtual monopoly over the music industry. How would you change the way things work?

I would stop having people pay for play. That shit is wack, and makes for nothing but ass videos and booty songs on the radio. Once again dj’s now don’t think for themselves they are forced to play the same songs, an records can’t get broken on a major level, which makes the playing field unfair for the smaller labels without the major money. Also as we are an artist friendly label, our splits with all artists are even. And since the artist is the actual one with the talent on all levels they should be getting a fairer cut of the pie. The whole industry is fucked up, and I don’t think it’s gonna change at all, we’re just trying to build our niche.

Your criticisms of popular culture are insightful and intelligent. How would you label yourself politically?

I’m a pretty liberal person. I’m definitely not conservative, although i’ve gotten a slight bit more as I’ve gotten older. I’m not so obsessed with “them” doing everything to us, but I am aware that shit is not anywhere near to how it seems. I think I just realized that I can’t really stop the bullshit that goes on in this country so I spend more time trying to take care of myself and my family, then stop all of the injustices of the world. It’s a funny time now, post 9-11 and all, and feeling if you speak out on something that’s “un-american” than your gonna get fucked with. It’s almost like the McCarthy era with communism and blacklisting around here. The media is controlled, it’s wild.

Why do you think so few MCs talk about social/political issues?

Because nobody wants to hear about social issues. Shit is generally fucked up for everybody, and most people know it, so nobody wants to get preached to. They want an escape like the movies from their ordinary lives. A fantasy world. I think we are a socially conscious group, but I don’t think we preach. We don’t talk about bullshit that we haven’t experienced either. But in reality people don’t want to hear about political issues, they want to be entertained first.

How do you feel about the state of hip-hop in 2002?

I don’t know how to feel about it. I barely listen to it for the most part. I might be reaching the upper cusp of outgrowing it, and some of it isn’t growing with me. I mean commercially speaking, my reality is not one of bitches, iced out jewelry, and spending so much money. And independently I don’t like hearing all the boring, whiny, super scientific shit. It’s time for something new. I am happy that artists are getting paid on this shit which people thought was gonna be a passing fad. But the over commercialization like those fucking mcdonald’s commercials, the snapple break dancing one and shit like that is a definite negative. I’m glad that hip-hop in 2002 has the power it does, now if we can just harness that power to reach so many people across the board of all races, we can somehow change the world I think. But I don’t see that happening.

How many different facets of your music are you involved in? Why didn’t you stick with just rapping or producing?

Well you know I rap and produce. I would probably be a lot better at rapping if that’s all I did, and I wish I were a better rapper, but I like making beats also. I’m more into music as a whole, and I like being creative and working my asr. Right now I’ve lost my writing jones, but I still make beats, and I’m working on doing a production album with guest rappers. I also just bought a electric guitar and I’m teaching myself to play.

What do hip-hop fans have to look forward to from the Masterminds and Third Earth Music?

Well come visit us at www.thirdearthmusic.com. This summer (August 6th) we have Jean Grae p.k.a. what what? dropping her long awaited debut album “The Attack Of The Attacking Things: The Dirty Mixes”. We were really grateful to get that project, Jean is one of my favorite mc’s, and I’ve been a fan of hers since the mid 90’s. After that we’ve got a project from the Oddjobs out of Minnesota. They’re record is called “Drums” and it’s 17 cuts deep of just good fucking music. Following that we’ve got a Pumpkinhead EP called “Blacklisted”, and a Subconcious EP, and an Icon The Mic King single with C-Rayz Walz. Next year we’ve got A Black Panther album, and a Mr. Len album, and there are two big surprises that I can’t mention right now, but like I said come to the site and check it out.

With a name like Masterminds, it sounds like you two might take over the world. Should we be scared?

Don’t be scared, be grateful if we did. I think a world under our control wouldn’t be such a bad place.