I Blog It Like It's Hot

Tha Blog is Hot presents…an exclusive interview with MALICE!

What happens when someone who loves books (ME) gets to interview one of their all-time favorite rappers (MALICE) about his book? Yeah, I’m talking about me having the wonderful opportunity to chat with Malice about his upcoming book Wretched, Pitiful, Pour, Blind, & Naked, among other things!

Malice was so kind, so humble, and so passionate about this project. If possible, I finished the interview and felt even more excited about the book! Highlights include chatting about his book, me being corny (what else is new), how “Life Change” came to be, his vignettes and vblogs, and yes, I even asked him what his favorite book is. And what about the rest? What about Clipse! Well, dear reader, you’ll just have to read on to see what we talked about!

Of course, I have to thank Malice again for the interview! It is just crazy; I spent high school listening to Lord Willin’ and In Search Of… (spoiler alert, Pharrell is mentioned in the interview as well) and it is more than a dream come true being able to talk to Malice, one of the people I can credit my love of hip hop to!

I could keep rambling all day about how I felt (I will probably get overcome by emotion like Big Sean if I keep writing), so I’ll leave it at that.

Don’t forget to preorder Wretched, Pitiful, Poor, Blind & Naked here. It drops on Valentine’s Day, sp you’ve got 2 weeks left to do so!

And here’s what you’ve been waiting for–click the link to read the entire interview!!!

Malice: Julie!

Julie: What’s up? How are you?

M: I’m good, man, I’m good. I’m doing really good. How you doin?

J: I’m doing well, just really excited to be talking to you about your upcoming book!

M: Well, I really appreciate it, man, and I really appreciate you for being interested in what I got going on, so thank you very much!

J: You’re actually the first person who shouted my blog out on twitter so thank you very much for that!

M: Don’t forget that that has to go down in the Hall of Fame!

J: Oh yeah I definitely favorite’d it maybe I should just like make it my wallpaper though for my website

M: [laughs] Why not, why not, for sho, for sho.

J: We’re 19 days away from your book Wretched, Pitiful, Poor, Blind & Naked being released. How do you feel?

M: Oh man, I’m very excited, you know? It has really been a burden that I’ve been carrying for like the past two, two and a half years, and I’m just ready to get it out there for everybody to just see and experience, behind the scenes, some of the things I’ve been through.

J: Your book centers around something in my notes that I’ve been referring to as “the event,” in quotations, which is something that God showed you and you want to tell us?

M: Definitely, that’s a good way to put it.

J: I feel a little corny saying “the event” in quotation marks…

[Both laugh]

J: What can you do?

M: It’s cool, it’s cool. You know I think everybody knows by now that I am definitely a Christian. I have been a Christian even before the music and you know my whole focus is not to try and enforce or make anyone believe what I believe. What this whole movement is about is to share my story and just let people see and know what I’ve been through and it’s just a wild series of events that are so undeniable and you know I can’t imagine anyone reading this book and not walking away with just a profound difference in their lives.

J: Right. So Til The Casket Drops was released in December of 09. Did “the event” occur before your guys’ last album, or during your creation of it? And how that affected the music, if so?

M: Yeah so this happened before the last album. People, who you know, the fans, they could hear lyrically where I was going with it, and they could hear the change, or could tell ‘he been through something,’ or something happened, or you know, just something different about my lyrics. A lot of people think this change happened around the time that my manager and my entourage when they got arrested. I’m not sure if you’re familiar with what went on with that…

J: Yeah…

M: They all got arrested and actually, I was definitely on this path before all that happened, and they’ll tell you like to this day, you know, I’ll go see my manager, go visit him, and he looks me in the face and tells me, “You were trying to tell me the whole time. You were telling me, you told me to my face and I wasn’t listening.” You know, I warned him, I warned everybody.

J: So in the song “Life Change,” you actually say the title of the book. How does the song relate to your book?

M: You know, well basically, there’s a little story behind that. We were in LA and I was in the studio with Pharrell, and we were all you know pushing myself, Pharrell, ourselves, for some concepts, for another single on the album. As it got later, we couldn’t come up with anything so by the end of the night everyone had left with the exception of Pharrell and myself, and I was just telling him, “You know, I feel different, I been feeling different.” I didn’t tell him the things I had experienced or the things in the book that had happened, but I was just letting him know that I felt different and I felt like some of the stuff, some of my topics, were kind of redundant or whatever, and so he understood what I meant, he was feeling different lately as well. So, that night, I guess he thought about it, and the next day my manager called me and said, “You know Pharrell was real inspired by the talk that y’all had had, and he came up with this crazy beat.” So we go to the studio, and needless to say it was “Life Change,” and when I heard it, I knew, “that’s my song.” I didn’t want to share it at all, I wanted to take it and tuck it away and make it my baby and just keep it to myself. But we ended up writing to it, and I told my brother, he didn’t know of everything that had went on with me, I was trying to explain to him but the words was just not coming out right. I couldn’t explain it, it was just way too much in too short of a timeframe to explain it. So when we left the studio that night, I went and got the key to his room and I actually had a copy of the manuscript with me, and I went in his room and I put it on his bed and the next morning, he called my room about 5 or 6 o’clock in the morning, and he was like, “Yo! I read the whole thing!” and he was like “That was crazy!” Just speechless, you know what I’m saying? That’s just like the real story behind the whole “Life Change” concept and how it all came about and basically, the title of the book Wretched, Pitiful, Poor, Blind & Naked, I feel, is the best way to describe the state that I was in at one time.

J: What was is like, going from writing lyrics to writing the book?

M: I feel as though it was very similar, I don’t think it was a huge transition. I think it was easier because you can just speak and not have to find the second part, which is the rhyming word, so it was like way easier. I also want people to know that this book definitely comes straight from my bedroom to your house. I didn’t have any ghostwriter. I actually solicited a ghostwriter, but when I got my material back, it didn’t sound anything like my voice. So yeah, I have, his name is John Spruill, and he actually did the forward to the book. He was like the biggest help I could have had, he was chief editor. We went through this thing together. It was just definitely an experience, and I’m sure he has his own stories to tell about the process of the book.

J: Well I’m just getting more and more excited talking to you about the book to read the book.

[Both laugh]

M: that’s what’s up. Only 19 more days!

J: So those vignettes you’ve been releasing…

M: Oh the vignettes. Yeah. [Laughs]

J: They have been really interesting! The last one, the skateboarding…have those been inspired by the book…?

M: Yeah, yeah. When you read the book, you’ll see that the skateboarder has his little place in it. Not a big huge deal, but you know that skateboard ramp is in my garage. I was in my crib.

J: I’ve also checked out your video blogs and they’re really creative and interesting—

M: Thank you.

J: You’re welcome! Do you see yourself going more into movies after this?

M: Absolutely! Definitely. I got a team out here, we go by the name of Re-Up Gang Films, and our first project is going to be based on the book. So once the book comes out, you know, I’m pretty sure it’s going to be a frenzy after people read this. It’s not a long drawn out book or anything like you know filled with a bunch of fluff, like this book gets busy from the beginning, like it cuts right to the chase and gets poppin. It should only take, I guess, about three and a half to four hours if you read it straight through. It’s not something that’s going to be sitting around for weeks and you got to the end of it. It’s just how I would want a book.

J: Did you enjoy the whole book writing process?

M: Yeah. You know, reason being is because, the story is so powerful and the way the story happened, the chronological order, like I didn’t have to do any thinking, all I had to do was write and tell the story. I would tell friends and family, about what happened to me and what I experienced, and they would get so compelled and intrigued by it, but it would always take like three hours just to tell the story. So, I knew that it had to be in book form because its like the center piece of any conversation wherever I’m at. I don’t care what’s going on, forget what’s going on, I was like, “I can’t keep doing this, I gotta just write it down once and for all, let the world see it,” and I just can’t wait to get the reviews and see, you know, what everyone thinks.

J: That’ll be really exciting! Like I said, I’m just getting more and more excited to read it!

M: I mean, I’m excited for you because my wife and I, we marvel at it, we marvel at the things that happened. We marvel at going over it, reliving it, replaying it like it’s just so unbelievable that it’s too wild. I just, out of everything I’ve ever done musically, this is the most fulfilling, the most exciting, the most exhilarating thing ever that I’ve ever done in my life, so I just can’t wait to get it out there.

J: Speaking of music, I saw that your brother is releasing a mixtape soon. And I was wondering if you’ll appear on it? Or if you’re working on any music?

M: No, we are still definitely working on a Re-Up Gang mixtape as well. I am not on his new mixtape. I’ve been—he’s been working on his, I’ve been working on my book [laughs]. We haven’t really had time for each other, but we definitely are going to do another Re-Up Gang mixtape and do a Clipse album. But right now, he’s trying to support his solo debut so he’s starting with his mixtape,.

J: Cool. That makes me happy, because you guys are some of my favorite lyricists, no doubt in my top three [up there with Lupe and Weezy].

M: Wow. I appreciate that. Thank you very much!

J: I just remember buying Lord Willin and In Search Of at the same time…

M: That was a good one too!

J: Those are probably up there in my ‘classics.’

M: That’s what’s up. Thanks a lot.

J: When you guys were on the Sneaker Pimps tour out in Seattle, both of you slapped me high five!

M: Really? [laughs] That’s what’s up! So you out in Seattle?

J: Yup…

M: Cool.

J: So I also would like to ask about your video blogs, like when you mention “foolishness in rap,” the entertainment element? I know people have asked you this before, but I just don’t understand why people continue to take lyrics so literally…

M: Are you talking about the listeners?

J: Yeah.

M: You know, I think that’s a great question. Because I have always been one to say, you know, “it’s just music, what’s the big deal?”

J: Right.

M: You know, it’s just music. I would always also say, you know, in movies, you get the audio and the visual, like you know, nobody really emulates the movie to the point where they reenacting what they see…

J: Yeah…

M: …whereas in music, it’s just the audio. So you would think that the movies would be worse. But I have had a change of heart, lately, because music is exceptionally powerful. And the vibe of music creates a euphoria in a sense of, you know, that music and melody, it can make you feel it goes straight to your soul. It starts with the music and the instruments and the melody and you can love that. And then it is the message that they slide in on top of that, and it can really brainwash you. I don’t really think the same way that I used to think. I understand why music is so powerful, and you know, my brother and I always say all the time, we love NWA but we never wanted to go out and kill anybody, but it’s like, some people can listen responsibly, and then there are other people who think that music is raising [them], it’s literally raising them. You know, we were fortunate enough to come from a two parent home and not everybody is that fortunate, and when you listen to your favorite song, and they’re talking about this and that, and you start experimenting, and you’re doing that, you listen to your music as well, it’s getting you hyped, it can definitely make some trouble if you’re not listening responsibly, so I’m at a place right now where I believe you know, you gotta think about what you say.

J: So, do you think it seems like an over-generalization about how people take lyrics so literally? Or do you think the answer is just listening responsibly, or are there other ways that—

M: it’s not even listening responsibly, it’s “are you responsible.” You know what I’m saying?

J: Yeah.

M: It’s my opinion, it’s not like ‘drink responsibly,’ you know to me is an oxymoron anyway if you’re drinking, you’re obviously getting out of your mind, so I don’t know how that works, but to me, music is entertainment, and if you can listen and be entertained and you know, wash your car and get in your car and put your favorite songs in and create the soundtrack to your life and enjoy it, then I think that’s great, you know what I’m saying?

J: Absolutely.

M: if you’re young, and you’re impressionable, you don’t know whether you’re coming or going ,then that music is going to guide you, and go wherever you allow it to take you.

J: Yeah…

M: See, somebody like me and you, we listen to it and enjoy it, and we know what parts not to do [laughs], but look at that 13 or 14 year old you know, it could be different for them.

J: To wrap up, one last question; it’s my favorite question to ask everyone: what’s your favorite book? Besides your own, I guess.

M: You probably want my two favorite books…because my first favorite book is definitely the Holy Bible. Definitely. I guess my next favorite book would be…The 7 Spiritual Laws of Success.

J: I think I need to read that…

M: Oh, it’s really really good, it’s really true, and, when I look at it, when I look at it, when I read that book, its like, identified with so much of it, so I think it’s like dead-on point in the things that I really didn’t tap into and should have, and I think it’s the perfect guide for success.

J: Oh ok, cool, well thank you…

M: [starts talking, I interrupt him, how rude of me!] Oh I was just going to tell you it’s by Deepak Chopra.

J: Oh ok, I’m going to look into that.

M: Yeah, he’s pretty good. Yeah, that’s what’s up. And I thank you for taking the time and helping me get the word out there about my book. You can go to my website, maliceoftheslipse.com or mademylifechange.com. Also, it’s going to be available on Amazon and available for your Kindle and ebooks as well.

J: Cool. I definitely preordered it immediately…

M: Ok Cool that’s what’s up! It will definitely be signed, too

J: Awesome! Well, again, thank you Malice!

M: Oh for sure. I really appreciate it! And hit me up on twitter!

Tweet Tags: Malice, The Clipse, Wretched Pitiful Poor Blind and Naked