Interview w/ Iomos Marad

[ “Rap is business music. Hip hop is cultural music.” ]

Chicago emcee Iomos Marad of All Natural, Inc. speaks his peace:

Me: How long have you been involved in hip hop and to what capacity?

Iomos: I been doing it for like fifteen years as an emcee and a musician—I play the drums.

Can you describe any common message that runs throughout your music?

Yeah, basically it’s about high morality and value. I don’t curse in my rhymes ‘cause, I mean, we’re supposed to be intelligent people. Anybody can curse, but I’m trying to be an intelligent person that can speak coherently in a time where there’s a lot of music that’s incoherent, you know what I’m saying? I’m basically trying to keep my eye on morality value and talk about social things that’s going on in America and abroad.

What are your feelings on hip hop in Chicago?

I would say it’s good and bad. Good in the sense that Chicago artists are coming out, but bad in the sense that I don’t like the direction that hip hop is going in. It seems to be geared more toward what you got on—what you wearing, your image. It doesn’t really have anything to do with a message, you know? I’m not knockin’ artists that do what they do, but in this day and age I think we really need to talk about some issues that’s going on instead of talking about what we’re driving or what we got on our backs.

And you think that’s what’s going on in Chicago right now?

No, I wouldn’t say here, per se. But there’s a few groups—I’m not gonna name any names—that seem to be on that.

But what about the recent surge of rappers that have blown up in Chicago? It seems like they’re talking more about social and political issues and taking the mainstream of hip hop in a new direction.

I think we got more to offer—I think Chicago has a lot to offer. And I think that the people that’s been doing it for a long time are not getting the recognition that they deserve. And I’m not even talking about myself, I’m talking about artists like Akbar, All Natural, Primeridian, Mass Hysteria—these are artists that have been doing it for a long time and they’re not getting the recognition they deserve.

What do you think about the hip hop industry here?

Is there industry here?! In my opinion, guys like Kanye and Common are putting on people that they know. That’s how it is though—when you get on you want to put your people on. But what about the people that paid their dues—people who have been doing it for way longer than them? To let you know what my position is, I’m a hip hop purist. I think a lot of this music is effecting the way that young people—I look at it from young people’s perspective. Ain’t no rappers telling them to abstain from having sex until you get married or to build a family. Even the so-called conscious emcees—their life ain’t living up to what they actually talking about. They could do a positive joint but then after a show you see them dippin’ out with three groupies—like they’re not living what they’re preaching. And that’s what we need more than anything. I think that you should give [listeners] a variety. Don’t just give them Snoop Dogg, give them Asheru, give them some KRS-One, give them some Rakim, give them some Lil John, you know? Back in the day there was more variety. You didn’t just have Poor Righteous Teachers. You had Poor Righteous Teachers, NWA and Del the Funky Homosapien—you had a wide variety of music that people could choose from and not just one particular sound. Let the people choose what they want to listen to, but that’s just my position…

It seems to me that the hip hop underground is moving along slowly but surely – like the demand for a wider variety of hip hop sound is shifting the market a little bit. What do you think?

I would agree, but another problem that’s in Chicago is that all the wrong people are in the right positions. What I mean is that you got somebody that’s showing favoritism or whatever. They put their people on just because they know them or whatever. If they don’t know you but they know you’re talented, they’re still going to put their people on before you—that’s just politics I guess. And I believe that’s why All Natural, Inc. isn’t where it should be. I’m a part of All Natural—anything I do represents All Natural 'cause I’m on that label. And that’s one of the reasons I chose to roll with All Natural—because All Natural has a standard and a positive image that they want to portray. Even myself, when I first got down with them, I had to grow and mature ‘cause I was out acting ignorant myself while putting out positive lyrics. And it comes to a point where it’s like “Man, am I gonna keep acting this way or am I gonna act the way my songs portray?” It’s just a level of maturity and once I came to that level…I’m back in school getting my education. I’m doing other things besides just music. I want to be an activist in the neighborhood. I want to be somebody that’s not talking about “we need to change this and that”—I want to be in the trenches with the people. That’s my position. I been down with All Natural for about seven years ‘cause I like what they stand for, I like what they represent. And sometimes I thought maybe I should get with a major [record label] but if you get with a major label they’re going to try to give you an image that they want you to portray and I want to be myself. I want my music to represent me. I don’t want my music to represent my A&R or represent some record label that’s gonna have me talking about things I never did before. I feel what Busta Rhymes said a long time ago: “There’s a difference. There’s hip hop music and there’s rap music.” And everybody is trying to shove rap music under the umbrella of hip hop but it’s not! Rap is business music. Hip hop is cultural music. Hip hop music instills the culture—tagging breaking, DJing, you know? It ain’t something you just put on and take off. We live this everyday. I think about rhymes all the time, even when I’m reading a book I’m just consciously thinking about it. But rappers will say anything to get dough 'cause it’s business music—they’re in it for the dough, they ain’t in it for the love. That’s just my opinion and I’m sure a lot of artists that are emcees would agree.

What’s you personal goal with hip hop music?

I don’t really have any particular goals. Basically what I want to do is keep putting out music. I’ma definitely keep putting out music. I got at least eight more albums in me, ten more albums in me, and I’m thirty-five! I look young but I’m thirty-five! It’s a blessing that I look young 'cause a lot of people think I’m sixteen 'cause of how young I look, but I’m thirty-five years old and I still got at least ten albums in me, man. And it seems like I’m falling in love with the music more and more, especially since artists like Oddisee and Kev Brown and the Low Budget Crew out of Maryland, Asheru—I been inspired by Asheru for a long time, seeing that he’s a [school] principal now. I’m inspired by that. J-Live, who’s a school teacher. Sadat X used to be a teacher. Defari is still a teacher. I want to put myself with those names, with those artists as being a school teacher. I’m doing music ‘cause I love it and I think I’m good at it. If the money comes, it comes, but that’s not my main goal. My mother says I should think that way but when I sit down and write a song my intentions aren’t like, “Man, I’m ‘bout to make some cake offa this song.” My intentions are, “I hope somebody hears it and it can help change somebody’s life or help somebody look at life in a different way.” My ultimate goal is to become a teacher and keep putting out records. That’s it, that’s all I want to do. That way—me working as a teacher—I’m already set financially and I can keep my message the same. And I want to get into other ventures too. I want to own a bookstore, kind of in the tradition of Mos Def and Talib Kweli. There’s a lot of things I want to do that’s sort of outside music but you can incorporate all of them within the music as well. I want to open a twenty-four-hour Rec. center for kids so they can go play ball instead of the running the streets, you know—teach them how to get jobs, teach them how to be entrepreneurs. I want to be involved. But I think music is the key to unlock that door. I think TJ Crawford [of the Chicago Hip Hop Civic Engagement Project] is a guy that’s doing it socially as well. He ain’t just talking about it, he’s being about it here in the community. In the African American community there’s a void—the family is broke down. Most kids are raised by their grandmother or their aunt, no mother and no father in the home. We need everything in place—I want to see that in the black community again and the Hispanic community as well. So I’m just trying to be uplifting, man. And I think music is the key to do that.

Where would you say you fit into the Chicago hip hop music scene?

I started back in high school with my cousin, Leon Rogers, who’s a personality on TCI now. When I was young I wanted to do whatever he did. He was the one that introduced me to hip hop. I remember the first time I went to his crib he was playing the Jungle Brothers’ ‘Straight Out the Jungle’ and I was like, “Dang!” And then I heard Q-Tip and I was like, “Yo, I wanna do that!” And all through high school my cousin was known for rapping—his name was Clever back in the day. He was the dude that rapped in our neighborhood. I wanted to do everything he did—he went and got a Gumby haircut, I went and got a Gumby haircut. So I went away to school to Rutgers University and wasn’t doing what I was supposed to be doing as far as school, and I met a guy named Tuffy from Baltimore and he taught me how write my first rhyme. Then I started getting into rhyming and stopped going to my classes. So then when I came back home I figured out I had a talent for free-styling. I didn’t have to write it, I could just come off the head, so I was like, “This is what I want to do. I want to do music.” So I got back to Chicago and my mother came to one of my talent shows and she was like, “Man, you’re just like everybody else standing up there rapping. Why don’t you try to do something different? Why don’t you do different poses when you rhyme or something?” And I was just shooting down her ideas. Then she said, “Why don’t you play the drums and rhyme at the same time,” and I was like, “Dang, that’s a good idea!” So then I went and developed drumming on my lap and rhyming and was like, “Dang, that’s it!” So then I went to do my first show and I brought the drums out and I did it and everybody was like, “Man, that’s your ticket!” So I just kept performing whenever I could and eventually got up with Jesse De La Pina who was doing the Elbo Room and the Double Door on Monday nights. He had me doing a bunch of shows with him at the Blue Groove Lounge and that’s where Tone B Nimble saw me, and that’s how I got down with All Natural. That, and also I used to hang out up at Columbia all the time and that’s where I met Mr. Greenweedz. And Greenweedz was telling me all about All Natural and the label and I was like, “Word?” He was like, “Yeah, you can try to get down too.” So Greenweedz saw me perform and told Cap D [founder of All Natural, Inc.] about me, like, “Yo, you need to check this dude—this dude raw!” So he did and Cap D was like, “Dang, yo! I want you on a song.” So then he called me up one day and that’s when we recorded ‘Deep Rooted’ and that was first song I ever did with him. Then Tone was like, “Yo, man, we want to be on our label.” But it started as a love for me—it was always a love for me. I never had the intention that I wanted to be a star. I mean, I always wanted to be like Tribe or De La Soul and be on a platform like that when you can tour and see the world, but I have a whole different goal to it now. Marvin Gaye said, “Music should reflect the times that we living in,” and the music that’s out right now ain’t doing that, as far as rap music. There should be a lot more rappers talking about the war [in Iraq] or what’s going on in these neighborhoods—they pushing people out their homes, man, and building condos! Music should reflect the times and I don’t feel the majority of the music is doing that.

Who are some local Chicago hip hop artists you consider to be legends?

Akbar, Cap D and All Natural, Danski, Common, of course, Primeridian, Mass Hysteria, GQ the Teacher—those are the majority of the ones right there.

Is there anything else you’d like to add about hip hop in Chicago?

I think Chicago is one of the realest places that’s doing the music the same way. I heard Large Professor when he came here—he was like, “Yo, man, I feel like I’m in New York back in the heyday!” Chicago is a beautiful city, man. I love where I’m from, but sometimes I feel like it’s not represented correctly. Back in the day, Common was all about Chicago—the perfect representation of Chicago: bubble coat, skull cap, baggy jeans. That was Chicago all day, you know? And Twista, he represented the West side, but it was still Chicago. Crucial Conflict—West side all day. The music industry, period—not just Chicago—seems watered down. It’s watered down, man! We need somebody who ain’t scared to speak the truth—like Biggie and Pac. Pac could tell you the truth in a minute. Biggie could tell you the truth in a minute. KRS-One could tell you the truth in a minute. Rakim is speaking the truth. Akbar, Cap D—speaking the truth. Cap D, with his last album ‘Return of the Renegade,’ is saying so much stuff that expands the political and social and worldview. And I’m an avid book reader—the books that I read got me open. They help people discover what their worldview is. It ain’t just about Chicago—with the internet, we living in the age of information. The world is getting smaller, so there needs to be more information in the music. I could go on and on about this… We need more activists, man. When you die, you can’t take all that jewelry and stuff with you!

Check out Iomos' home page: http://www.myspace.com/iomosmarad