It wasn’t beauty that killed the beast but Mindkilla

Mindkilla is an alternative hip hop artist that I stumbled across while surfing MySpace. The lyrics and beats where different then what I had I had listened to at the time. His previous album entitled Politicians dealt with the politics of the country under the Bush administration. The latest album Visionary is broader in scope and deals with a variety of topics that are affecting the general population of not only the U.S.A but the world as a whole. Each of the tracks in this album are distinct and you just can’t listen to a song once. You have to let them digest in your brain for a bit till you get a good feel for what each song brings to the table. I was able to get in contact with him and conduct the following interview. This is my first interview with a musical artist so bear with me and hopefully what follows isn’t a train wreck and does Mindkilla justice.


Ivan: What is your background?

Mindkilla: My background is that I represent all Puerto Ricans rapping in Queens New York all day and for all those Spanish artists out there starving because the labels aren’t giving us a chance to shine since Big Pun passed.

Ivan: Choosing a career as a hip-hop artist is no easy task so what drives you to write and record your lyrics?

Mindkilla: What drives me is the passion I have for the music. I've been listening to Hip Hop music my whole life. I started rapping in the 6th grade and I never stopped from there. My motivation is to always be the best the game has ever seen. If I'm not known as one of the best when it is all said and done then I failed.

Ivan: Who are your musical influences?

Mindkilla: My Musical Influences are Portishead, Gangstarr, Pj Harvey, Radiohead, and Wu Tang at their peak. There are also a whole bunch of other artists but that's all I can think of at the moment.

Ivan: What are your long-term career goals?

Mindkilla: My long term career goal is to have a record label that I run and release my own material and bring all the heads that I know. They deserve a chance with me to get theirs and shine, oh and maybe fix up congress if my past doesn't destroy that from happening.

Ivan: How does your creative process work do you come up with a beat first and then apply the lyrics or do you bust out some rhymes and then come up with the accompanying music? What about the titles to your tracks?

Mindkilla: My creative way of doing my albums comes both ways, sometimes I have a song idea and I write it and then pick the beat that goes with it. I also get beats from some of my producers and they spark something creative and I write a new song. It goes both ways like a bisexual. LOL. The titles to my tracks are secondary, sometimes I think of a title and write about the subject, other times I write the song and the title comes from within the song.

Ivan: Your single off this album if am not mistaken is Death Mobile you have other great songs my favorite being Posterize. Why this track and not another one?

Mindkilla: Well it's still early in the album lifespan so Posterize could be a single but the reason I picked Death Mobile is because it is flat out different than anything you will hear this year. I was able to grasp a visual by getting the hearse which also weighed heavily on my decision. There will be more singles to come besides the one on the site which is now called Triangle Of Terror.

Ivan: In some of your songs you reference yourself. Some could say that it’s too self promoting. What to do you say to those people?

Mindkilla: Hip Hop has always been a self promoting art. During the days when Hip Hop began it was all about having fun and battles because the music is so competitive, that's why you cannot go a year without some rappers having beef because it is so competitive. As long as the content stays on the record and we do not lose any more soldiers like Tupac and Biggie then its fine. The minute it goes overboard our music looks stale and people can then criticize but luckily I feel Hip Hop has learned its lesson from those 2 deaths. Am I to self promoting, maybe but it is nothing that has not been done from generation to generation.

Ivan: In the first few tracks it’s just you but later on you have other contributors in this album. Do you feel that having other contributors brings something more to the music that you’re putting out?

Mindkilla: I always love putting my people on to my projects because they are so talented. They all got skills and are easy to work with in the studio. Plus when I do a song with someone else the vibe is always there and it shows on the record that we record. I do not like to just hear myself throughout a whole album, I'm also a fan of the art and I always like to hear what my people come out with.

Ivan: The majority of the music in this album is clean but some of it does have profanity. Was this done intentionally?

Mindkilla: Hip Hop is the ultimate form of expression that is what makes it so great but that is also what gets us in trouble because we push freedom of speech to a whole new dimension. When I curse in my verses, I don’t just curse just to do it and say wait this verse needs a curse, shit damn motherfucker.LOL. It comes out because it was meant to be there, that is how I feel when I write the verse so it stays in the verse. I have calmed down on my profanity a lot. Though with my lyrics am aware that cursing does not make a song great it’s the content.

Ivan: Do you feel that that your music makes a difference in a world where everyone is trying to be the next Jay-Z or Eminem?

Mindkilla: I feel if everyone is trying to be the next Jay Z or Eminem then its done for the wrong reasons. They just want the power, the fame, the money and the success. I just want a shot to have my music heard and be mentioned with the greats. I mean it’s not how much money I made in my career but creating music that is timeless. Somebody could pick up one of my albums years from now and say man, Mindkilla was ill, I'm glad I got the chance to hear and appreciate his music.

Ivan: What’s the best thing about being an artist?

Mindkilla: The best thing about being an artist is when you perfected your craft and you’re satisfied with your flow and everyone around you believes you can make it. That is as satisfying as making it because everyone believes around you.

Ivan: Taking a look back at when you first started till the present do you feel that you are successful at being an artist?

Mindkilla: I feel I am successful at being an artist but like in the NBA or NFL, it doesn't mean a thing without the ring. If I never get signed or make it, I will always feel a void that was never filled.

Ivan: What is your favorite Song in general?

Mindkilla: I do not have a favorite song that would be an injustice to all the Artists that busted their ass throughout the years to put music on my walkman, iPod or iPhone.

Ivan: I found out that you filmed an independent project called Damn am an Idiot. What has been posted online so far is interesting. Do you want to branch out from your music career?

Mindkilla: Anything related to entertainment am willing to take a shot at. I have so many ideas but you need funding to make those ideas come to life and hopefully one day I get my chance.

Ivan: What is the number one thing you want people to get out of your music?

Mindkilla: The #1 thing I want people to say they get out of my music is that he gives it his all. When he dropped an album I could listen to the whole album without any songs skipping like old classic albums. I want people to feel when they spend money on a Mindkilla album they will hear something that they never heard before.

Ivan: Anything else that you would like to say about yourself or what your fans can expect of you in the future?

Mindkilla: I just want to tell all my fans to keep believing in me and keep believing in yourself and you can be anything you want to be in life. There is no timetable. Do not let people say your too old to do something. Your time is going to come trust me it does not matter your age or anything else, if it's meant to be it's meant to be. Always believe in yourself and always surround yourself with positivity. I will be touring Visionary over the next 2 years. Look for an underground mix tape I will be dropping real soon and stay tuned to mindkilla.com for all the latest news and events. Peace.

Anybody who would like further information about Mindkilla can visit his website Mindkilla.com where you will be able to purchase his music or book him for a gig. You can also check out his videos on www.youtube.com/user/DamnWhatAnIdiot.

"Time is the only thief we can't get justice against"

 

We ask ourselves daily how come we didn't get a chance to do everything we had planned. It seems that as we get older more time is spent on mundane tasks and we rarely get a chance for ourselves. When we reach retirement age you would think it would be easier but it's not. So how do we get more time, the answer is simple time travel.You might have read, heard or watched a movie about time travel at some point in your life. This idea was once in the realm of science fiction but many scientists are taking the idea seriously. Time travel would not be a solution to every problem but if we could master it, we could extrapolate other ways to use it. Imagine creating a time bubble where time passes differently inside. You complete a task in about 8 hours inside and when your done you leave the bubble and find that only a hour passed outside.

Time travel would be awesome because you would be able to do learn so much about the past and get to see places that are only described in ancient history books. If I could travel I would go back to the days of Egypt and make copies of the scrolls found in the library of Alexandria. There are also a few other places where I would try to preserve knowledge. Knowledge has been lost over the centuries because a few individuals felt threatened by the capacity that learning has on people.This would be why I would time travel. I guess the rest of you reading this would probably go back to some point in your life and try to correct some mistake. Others might try to make money through future knowledge. Unfortunately while this is possible it may not make a difference in the long run because you might create an alternate fork in the time line and your actions may not affect your life but another version of yourself. 

The last statement I made will be explained in full with the video I include at the end of this paragraph. Some questions do arise with the concept of time travel. How come we haven't met some traveler from the future already. Well maybe there are individuals who police travelers as they make their journeys. The more grim version could be that in the distant future we basically go to war and humanity does survive in some form but they would have to start from scratch. Lastly we could travel to the future but not the one that may actually be. Every action we take has repercussions so the future is in constant flux and again the future we visit may be some sort of parallel world.

The holidays where once about being with those we cherish.

Sitting in my cold apartment, tuned to Pandora I reflect upon the commercialization of Valentines day. Walk into any chain retail store and your bombarded with teddy bears,chocolate and discount cards. Do we really need all of these items to express how we feel about another person. No but we're expected to do so because its become en grained into us by greedy corporations who feed upon us year after year. I applaud that one guy who instead of following the norm does something unexpected for Valentines day. Yes it makes every other guy seem thoughtless but hey he's putting more effort into it. The thing though is that these same principles can be applied to almost any other holiday.

Christmas just passed about a month and half ago and I still hear people complaining about how they didn't get what they wanted. Christmas is supposed to be about togetherness and celebrating the birth of Jesus. Some of my readers aren't Christian and may either celebrate Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or Festivus. When the holiday season comes around again do me a favor and try to do more with less. Lucky for us commercialization has to yet ensnare certain times like Black history month or Hispanic heritage month. At this point some of you will think am bitter about the holidays but am not. Personally the holidays where spent with family and sometimes we observed the customs of the holiday in the best way we could.

This rant of mine makes me realize that the only decent holiday left is Independence Day. Every time when the fourth of July comes and when we set off fireworks we are reminded of the freedoms that our founding fathers had to fight for. Yet a part of me realizes that slowly this is changing as more of our freedoms are slowly being taken away from us this holiday will just be another day that we hope falls on a Friday so we can have a longer weekend. To those who have made it this far all I ask is one favor. Reflect upon the holiday that your observing and try to make it personal in some way that does not involve a purchase at a local convenience store.

If you don't settle down we're turning around and heading back home.

A few days ago I was sitting on the train and noticed two families that occupied a great section of the seats. What was fascinating was the ineptitude of the parents to keep there kids under control. One was hanging on the the bar grips like if he was at the jungle gym. The other one was throwing fries all over the floor. You're asking what the heck where the parents doing. The moms gossiped about the sex life of a friend they had, meanwhile the dads discussed the recent turn of events which prevented a certain team to head off to the Superbowl. These folks deserve the parenting awards of the year. Seriously!

I have no kids of my own but rest assured I would have ensured some sort of decorum out in the public. Many but not all children grow up without boundaries. The case usually being that one parent doesn't care and ends up undermining the other parent who does care. Extreme cases are those that are heard on the news where the parents are abusive. What should society do to ensure that kids are being brought up in a manner that will benefit them. The solution is simple have parents get a license.

Some of you at this point might call me a totalitarian. To those that do am just going to say one thing. We already have licenses for almost everything else. So why not children? Parents should be able to pass a mental and financial background check. Those that don't will you can always try later. Some of you reading this probably had to go to the DMV more than once to pass you're drivers test. There will be some who will ignore these proposed regulations and will continue to procreate. Simple solution the children of these parents become property of the state. They will be cared for and given schooling and be encouraged to take up some sort of government job. The parents of course will get sterilized. If you can't use a condom or take the pill then you deserve it. There may be a point where these unfit parents actually become worthy and thus they can adopt a child.