Necro Interview; about “The Godfathers” with Kool G Rap & much more

With a 20+ years career under his belt Necro is no stranger to the pitfalls and advantages of building your own empire. Having done so with his record label Psycho Logical Records where he released all of Necro’s solo albums, as well as albums from Mr. Hyde, Sabac Red, and his most recent achievement; a full length collaborative album with the legendary Kool G Rap. In this Necro interview we catch of with the King Of Death Rap about “The Godfathers – Once Upon A Crime” album, his plans for PLR Records and what makes Necro stand out amongst the ever growing spectrum of rappers…

The Godfathers “Once Upon A Crime” has been out for about a month now, how is it doing? Are you satisfied with the reviews / sales / general reception?
Reviews dont matter to me from outside people, the fans reviews are that its a classic.
sales are as good as my last 2, which is better than 90%, not as good as the elite 10% (Tech, ICP, fag miller, etc.)

How did you first meet G Rap, and even moreso how did you get him to do an album with you?
Domingo the producer introduced us, I’m a real label so I was able to kick it with G Rap and explain my vision and he respected my hustle and as we started recording he was blown away by what I was doing, and it turned into 16 tracks, as opposed to the 5 song EP we agreed to at the start. I just lucked out to finally meet someone that wouldn’t judge me on being insane and white, he doesn’t judge like that and it’s awesome cuz he is a huge influence on me and someone I considered to be the best.

The Godfathers “Once Upon A Crime” was originally supposed to be released somewhere late 2012 I believe….
Actually that’s false, I never gave a release date, I might have said hey we wanna get it out this year in 2012. But I wasnt gonna rush it and ruin it for a release date, Dr Dre and Raekwon took 10+ years on their records, we took 2 years, big deal, people are retarded and wanna break balls on eveything.

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You produced the bulk of this album. I think all of your albums have a really distinguished sound, might also be a result of the fact that you haven’t done production outside of your camp for a long, long time. Do you have a set process for doing a beat, or does it differ per song?
I produced the entire album, only one song Kool G Rap added a sample idea so he got co-production, but I produced the whole thing start to finish, and I went out of my way to create a fresh pie for this release, no leftovers, just straight out the oven, hot and ready.

The Godfathers “Once Upon A Crime” has a 40 page booklet with all lyrics and dope drawings and whatnot. In this day & age do you think this will help convince people to still purchase an album on cd (or vinyl) rather than iTunes or Amazon digital or whatnot.
It’s not 40 pages, it’s like 28 I think, and I did it to be cool cuz this album means alot to me, I got no clue wether or not it matters to people that much, cuz I think without it I would have gotten the same orders, but I think the fans appreciate when it’s done, it should be about the music first and foremost I think.
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You always go the extra mile regardings layouts / dope album covers, while most hip hop artists stick with an overly gangster picture of themselves on the front of the album… What keeps you motivated to do all this extra stuff, give that 110%…
I dont wanna be cliche & I wanna leave a legacy of dope art. Eventually their will be a coffee table book with all the Necro PLR art in it with me explaining it all, I just like it personally, if a cover with a pic can be dope then I’m not against it but usually it’s weak.

You grow up around both hip hop and metal / hardcore. You even played in a death metal band with your brother. What made you decide to start (continue?) rapping rather than playing/singing in a band?
We couldnt get signed to a label, specifically Roadrunner at the time, we wanted them cuz they were the best, and we just got more into the hiphop thing. Felt like we were unique cuz their was nobody white doing it and it was so fresh for us, so new, and so exciting to pursue this craft and deliver something new to the game.

Necro & Kool G Rap – The Godfathers

You always keep it real in interviews and interactions on FB and such. Do you think, throughout your career this has helped you (as in people respect that realness, upfront style) or did it work against you..?
That can’t be quantified, I think every 10 fans I gain I lose one or two, someone gets out of line and I ban them or snuff them, and then 10 new fans might join, or maybe for every fan I lose I gain one and just stay in the same level, who knows..

In addition to that I think you are one of the most prolific artists when it comes to responding / interacting with fans on social media.. You feel like it’s important to keep in touch with your fans / demographic? Don’t you ever get tired as the everflowing stream of redundant questions (same goes for interviews, such as this one haha)…
Yeah its brutal but I think it’s weird to ignore someone reaching out to you that wants to support your music, I dont wanna take that for granted, I worked too hard to be at the point where people show interest alot so I’m not gonna ruin it by ignoring them.

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A few years back your label Psycho+Logical Records was releasing other artists besides Necro.. such as Sabac Red and Riviera Regime, more releases from artists like Q-Unique and Nems (I think?) were planned but those fell through… Will you start to expand the PLR roster in the next few years, or will it be strictly Necro and Mr. Hyde projects?
I’m not sweating to work with other rappers like that, rappers are egotistical and headaches, they all think they the best, they don’t appreciate shit, and they think they are better than you when you are helping them, and you have the bigger fanbase. NYC in general sucks for unity and rappers from NYC are not like rappers from the south who are more unified, sad but true.

On “The Asshole Anthem” off of the “Die” album, you sampled the voice and guitar riff of an Ani Difranco song.. You later said that whole lawsuit ruined a big part of the success of that album. Could you go a bit more into detail about what happened (what kinda impact such a lawsuit has) and why it destroyed the “Die” album..?
I invested over $80k into DIE! When she presented the lawsuit claim to remove my cd’s, Best Buy and all these stores took my shit off the shelves, so it ruined all the momentum. Then Best Buy banned me cuz of the “Human Traffic King” video, so it created problems and ruined the potential to make profit off the release, it took 2 years to recoup that, so I had a tough 2 years cuz that was all the money I really had at that moment.
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Necro & Mr. Hyde

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You own all your releases’ masters, which gives you control over what gets done with em, and you reap the rewards.. Can you explain a bit what kind of advantage this gives you, and how most other artists are pretty much held hostage by their record companies..
All the checks come to me always, as opposed to someone else that released you, cuz once someone else releases you most of the time they own the master for life and they will collect checks, so owning shit is always good for the long run. That’s how I started so I built my whole shit that way. For me it’s natural but most rappers don’t have the nerve to do shit how I do it, they want that quick money and fame and if it doesnt work out, 5 to 10 years later someone else is collecting the checks for their work, how many rappers own their first 3 albums???? Hahaha most don’t, maybe now after years they go indie, but I make the most loot off my key solo albums, “I Need Drugs” still makes me money 13 years later!

All the checks come to me always, as opposed to someone else that released you, cuz once someone else releases you most of the time they own the master for life and they will collect checks, so owning shit is always good for the long run.

Througout the years you have referenced a lot of metal / hardcore bands in your lyrics, on “Death Rap” you had some amazing metal influenced guest spots… Will we ever see a hardcore / crossover project with Necro fronting a band? You already have plenty of close associates in great NYHC band (Skarhead, Crown Of Thornz, Madball etc)…
I don’t know what the future holds for metal collabs, but we shall see, maybe..

We need to see a Skam Dust / Necro collabo, any chance?
Yeah skam is my homie, maybe in 2014.

In closing; what’s next for Necro? Touring? Another project with G Rap? Gruesome Twosome with Hyde? Jewish Gangsterz? New Necro album?
Touring yes, touring with Kool G Rap. Maybe a Godfathers single in 2014, something with me and Mr. Hyde, maybe a few songs or ep. No Jewish Gangsterz at the moment, I’m sick of hearing ‘free palestine’ everytime someone finds out I’m a jew, too much ignorance out there. Definitely wanna drop 3 new Necro albums; sexorcist, death rap and thug album. Plus more collabos that haven’t happened yet, I will be very active in 2014!

Thanks a lot for the interview..
Yeah no problem. Cop The Godfathers album and check out my social networks
Thanks!
Necro.

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