grafwurks.com

We caught up with Capital P before the drop of his album The Truth; which comes out tomorrow May 3rd. Make sure you go to www.icrecords.org and download The Truth album on tomorrow or hunt down Capital P and get an actual copy. Also make sure and see what Capital P had to say…

Grafwurks: Tell the readers who Capital P is?
Capital P: First and foremost, thank you for having me, I really appreciate it. Capital P is an interesting character if I must say so myself. Honestly I’m an emcee at heart, but producer – manager - executive business type by trade. If I could work from home it would be just on music and I’d never really step outside the studio, but unfortunately that’s not how it works, well at least for now. I was born in Dallas, I’m Mexican, I got Mayan blood in me so I’m dark, I rap east coast and live in the south; so what does that tell you? That tells you I gotta work twice as hard as everyone else. I got family in Chicago that I visit at least once a year.

Grafwurks: Who locally are you feeling right now; as far as they’re on their grind & doing their thing?
Capital P: Locally I’m feeling that one dude …you know Capital P?  Ha! But honestly I got much love for a lot of local cats. Dawg Wonder is on top of his game and you can actually hear him on the album. I definitely feel Playdough man I seen him rock a show, his crowd presence, his topics, and his whole movement had me like damn. You know this cat knows what he’s doing.  Joulz Il is dope and I can’t wait for his album to drop, you know the regulars like Nonspecific, DDC, Subchronicles and etc.  got much love for SFP and the Aeonz crew, man they’ve been doing their thing for a minute and if I could say where do I, or where would I like to see my crew and my label in the future…it would be up there with the recognition of the Aeonz crew.

Grafwurks: You just don’t rap you’re also a producer; when producer/writing do you have to been in a certain state of mind to express yourself?
Capital P: Yeah man people think if you produce you produce or if you write you write, and then when people see producer/emcee’s they think to themselves…ah either this cat can’t spit, so no one wants to produce for him, or he can’t produce and he can’t give away his beats!  You know so doing both already gets a certain kinda vibe from the hip hop community.  But being able to produce and write is truly a blessing because we are more in control of what actually takes place.  As far as the mind state, when producing I’m usually in my creative mode, but also structured, like I know this sound is needed here, or this crash, or this kinda kick, or what sound am I going for…what feeling does it leave the listener? All before any lyrics are even put to the track! And when I’m writing…I take the track and ask myself what kinda feeling does it put me in and then I write around that…so as an emcee/producer to me, the production side is where it all begins.  Now you can work backwards and have a theme or type of song you want to write and then structure the beat around it…which is what I did for ‘sorry’ which is dedicated to my mother, but to me it’s just easier to be creative and then let the pen connect wit the beat.

Grafwurks: If you could work with any producer/rapper, who would be your first pick?
Capital P: Let’s see in no particular order I’d work with Alchemist or Marco Polo on the beat and I’d work with Fat Joe and Info Red on the lyrics and make one dope track.

Grafwurks: What are your thoughts on this new two-step one hit wonders phenomenon going on right now with all these songs coming out right now?
Capital P: You know I wish you wouldn’t asked that question; I hate this faddy type, doing it for about two weeks, get ya paper then bounce type of music.  I dislike Soulja Boy, and all of this type nonsense that has a catchy beat but they ain’t saying nothing, or if they are saying something half the people out there really don’t know what they saying…most of the time it’s degrading women, talking bout shooting, robbing, stabbing, flashy whips or chains and honestly half them on layaway or rent, you know!.  So let’s move on, beause I don’t want to have to stab or rob you…hahah just kiddin man

Grafwurks: What do you think of the hip hop scene here in Dallas?
Capital P: Man hip hop in Dallas…pheew…honestly hip hop in Dallas is exactly where it needs to be at!  This city and the artists/emcees aren’t ready for a big revolution.  Half of us don’t support others or the other half think we’re better then the others and don’t give two shits about hip hop in Dallas.  So it’s at where it needs to be at.  But there is a little small movement in the underground scenes and you know that’ll work till they try to shut that down like Deep Ellum.  I just think some of the major players as far as underground hip hop are too pigeon holed or simple minded, you know there’s a lot of hot spots in Dallas for hip hop where people are dropping like $700 bottle service a night to sit around and listen to Soldier Boy crap, so if we could just infiltrate these types of establishments with b’boys, emcees and dj’s…man Dallas could be a metropolis for tha south…bigger than Houston, but the problem is, if we ain’t showcasing well then half of us aren’t going.

Grafwurks: You are releasing your new album on May 3rd, what can people expect from your album; The Truth?
Capital P: Man you can expect all kinds of different things on the album, you know part of hip hop is too narrow as far as people trying to try new things…so almost every track is different.  Especially since this is my first album, I’m kinda still experimenting with my voice and finding my tone, but for the majority of the part, the album is banging  Beats by Rob Viktum, Capital P, Ocular with special guest appearances from Tek 45, Dawg Wonder, Arsun Fist and Leon the Pro from DiverseSoulz, just a whole lot of good variety in music. Because nowadays I’m told that every track needs to be done to be single material since no one buys c.d.’s anymore so it’s all about the individual track and is it downloadable.  But don’t take my word for it though…hit up www.icrecords.org and take a listen haha shameless plug.

Grafwurks: Where or how can people get the new Capital P album?
Capital P: Man you can get it on iTunes, CDBaby.net, ICRecords.org, Myspace or hit up tha label at info@icrecords.net or holler at Grafwurks. You can find me at lonestarhiphop.com and holler at me or track me down in the streets, you know we can talk shop and we can negotiate the price if it’s in person

Grafwurks: If there is one thing you could tell our readers why they need to check out The Truth album, what would you tell them?
Capital P: I’d say go check it out because yo mother told me to tell you to check it out.  But seriously man this is our first album as a record label and my first album as an emcee. You know I been producing for past 3 years for MEGA, Guillotine and some other kcts, but I’ve only been writing again for about a year, so go take a listen to the album and be like damn, you know this is this cats first album. To me it doesn’t sound like it and then come to the realization that the next one will be even better and better!  And just enjoy it because it’s just my perspective or actually I was doing this one show and here’s why you should check it out. Shorty told me (complete stranger) “I love your music because it’s real, your talking about real life, not just a bunch of fancy sharp words”, which is true, my music/lyrics are listener friendly and you can relate to them, like Sorry is dedicated to all mothers, or Ease back is for everyone who has ever been doubted or Face Tha Music is aimed towards where music is going.

Grafwurks: What can we expect from Capital P & Iron Chef Record this year?
Capital P. Man you just keep coming with them questions, I gotta go check the parking meter bro’, I only put like ten cents in, haha nah but this year we are working on a Iron Chef mixtape with some local cats and then Guillotine the Kasino Champ’s album should be out sometime December. Who we just signed to a record deal, so look for more shameless plugs for that one

Grafwurks: Any shout outs or anything you wanna tell our readers in particular?
Capital P: Yeah man…GO LISTEN TO THE ALBUM and then subscribe to the mailing list and hit me up on myspace, but appreciate you having me out here bro’, I’m hungry and the meter’s running so I’m gonna bounce like rejected checks at Wal-mart!