Guilty Simpson: The RAPstation Interview - Part Two

Stones Throw Records signee Guilty Simpson is anxiously preparing for the worldwide release of his third official studio album Detroit's Son, which drops September 11. Rumor has it, an O.J. Simpson 2 is also in the works, which will again be produced by Madlib, who produced Simpson's second studio album, O.J. Simpson, in 2010. The Detroit native got his start thanks in part to two important men in his life, Denaun Porter and the late, great J Dilla. In Part II of the Guilty Simpson interview, Simpson reveals what those men mean to him, suffering for art and what exactly he's guilty of these days. Check out http://www.stonesthrow.com/guiltysimpson for more information.   RAPstation (Kyle Eustice): How did the Stones Throw thing happen? Did you meet Peanut Butter Wolf? Guilty Simpson: When Dilla was still alive, they were on the Jaylib tour with Peanut Butter Wolf, J. Rocc and the whole gang,and they all came to Detroit. I performed with Dilla, a song called "Strapped" that's on the Jaylib project. Peanut Butter Wolf started showing interest form there. Basically, that’s when I knew I was possibly going to go to Stones Throw, even back then. I didn't actually sign until after Dilla passed. That's how our working relationship initially started. I was featured on a couple of projects. Do you credit J Dilla with helping you get on? Oh yeah. Him and another gentleman named Denaun Porter, he was very, very instrumental in helping me out, too, even more so than Dilla. I met Denaun first, shortly after Dilla. Actually Mr. Porter and Dilla were talking about doing something together then my producer put my music out in the early stages. I would definitely credit both those guys for helping me out. At the time, I was just rhyming, trying to stay active and stay out of trouble, you know what I'm saying? Those were the guys from the other side, so to speak, that showed me I could make a living off of it. Growing up as a kid, did you think that was possible?  Nah, nope. I really didn't. Not in those early phases. I used to like rapper's music and write their rhymes down on paper, but it never really registered to me that I could be a rapper. I have a good friend named Chance and he was hanging with some friends that were in a rap group. When I came back home to Detroit from Alabama, where I tried to go to college, they were already were doing it. They wanted me to try out rapping and that's how I got my start. It was almost like a dare to try to rap. Here I am. Are you familiar with Blackalicious? Sure, yeah. Gift of Gab said he started rapping because of a kid that used to hassle him and one day, he wanted to be prepared with a comeback type of rap so he wrote one. That's how he started. See what I'm saying? Right, right, right. I have found that out that he actually went through the process of suffering for it at an early, early stage. Usually that's synonymous for success is that you kind of suffer for it so you have an appreciation for it. He learned early on. Salute for that for sure. That's dope. That's a dope story. There's countless emcees that have told me they had to do the same thing; Phife Dawg, Kurtis Blow. They always had to be prepared. Just imagine what that did for a kid's confidence at that age to be able to get that acceptance from their peers and for them to acknowledge their talent. Once a kid is acknowledged for their talent by their peers, they blossom and do great things. Even if it's not music, they could do anything. I think music does that. Me too. Years later, I guess the guy told Gift of Gab he was better than him at rapping. Nice. That's dope. I have to ask, what exactly are you guilty of Mr. Simpson? Just killing microphone, basically [laughs]. Guilty is like a rap style that me and my good friend Hex Murdah, peace to him, came up with. He came up with the idea of Guilty because of the way I rhymed. I used to like Ice Cube, Scarface, Kool G Rap, N.W.A. That was the combination of rap that I liked. A lot of my raps would be angry and rebellious. Guilty just kind of fit. My real last name is Simpson so I used to scribble 'guilty' on paper and write Simpson side by side. I looked at it on paper and it just sounded epic. Sounded epic [laughs]. Love it. So as an N.W.A. fan, are you looking forward to Straight Outta Compton? Yes, yes I am. I haven't checked it out yet, but I have talked to some people who have seen it and they loved it. I heard great things about the movie. I'm going to check it out. And it's cool Ice Cube's son, O'Shea, is playing Ice Cube.   I thought that was crazy. But Eazy-E also has a son that looks just like him. I was always hoping he could be in the movie. He's a dead ringer for his pops. I think his name is Lil' Eazy. He looks just like his pops. It's crazy. I was hoping he got that part. O'Shea had to audition like everybody else. Of course, especially with Ice Cube in the movie business. I'm sure he wanted to make sure he didn't just get it by birth right. Sounds like a good dad. That's right. Teaching him some values.