Hip Hop DX - 'FILA' and Aspirations For A Global Album [tekst, tłumaczenie i interpretacja piosenki]

Hip Hop DX: What makes 'FILA' different compared to the other albums you’ve dropped?

Raekwon: Fly International Luxurious Art — that’s a mirror on the wall with many different colors on it. It’s a good energy because it’s global music. It’s not just music that allows me to sit in one box. I want to make an album where people in London or people in Germany will love it. There are certain sounds I want to explore and not make it just a hardcore album from a hardcore emcee. I just want it to be universal—I want it to have stuff for the radio and for the hardest emcee’s. I want to mix it up and make it global and fly

Hip Hop DX: Do you think you’re experimenting more on this album than on any previous album?

Raekwon: Yeah. I think I’m really at my best with vocab. I’m really being inspired again to sit down and come up with it. I’m with a lot of producers and they’re helping me really find my niche. It’s all about the production, too. I’m in a great space with producers and I got some shit. I might be sitting on two albums worth of good shit

Hip Hop DX: One of the things I feel a lot of people overlook about you is that you’re more about the albums and doing a complete body of work as opposed to making just the smash hit and being content with complementary, sub par records. Are we seeing a decrease in artistry where guys are just chasing that one hit single and aren’t putting as much effort into their whole album?

Raekwon: Yeah, that shit has been going on for a long time. It’s like, people look at videos and they look at just singles. I’m just a different kind of artist. I like to work with people on albums that do features, but sometimes you want to become different. I’m not saying it’s good or bad. You just don’t want to be in a situation where you give somebody 12 records and they send you only three or four

You want someone to be like, “Yo, that’s a lot of records that I have to respect.” That’s why now, you got a lot of people going to the stores and they listen to first, because they don’t want to spend their money on something they don’t think will be worth it. A lot of people want to listen to great records—like it’s a good single—but then when that record is over, they want to listen to a great album. I was always taught to make solid albums. When you make a classic like Cuban Linx, after that, I couldn’t make nothing but great albums and still be relevant now

Hip Hop DX: Are we going to see more radio-friendly hits from your next album?

Raekwon: You’re going to see something hot. You’re going to see something that’s going to make you feel like, “Wow, he gave it to all of us.” It’s going to be stuff out there that you’ll know I didn’t have to go all the way to the left to get that respect. You’re going to feel good about it. It’s going to be great music and great features. This album may have more features than I’ve ever had in my life in a good way where it’s a different spoof for y’all. As a Hip Hopper, you’re going to say, “Damn, if I had a cold and Hip Hop had to save me, I’ll know what medicine to get. I’ll know what soups to go buy.” This is a good soup right here. I feel good and confident

DX: And to finish off this interview, I want to move onto another rapper, Lil Wayne. He’s been in the news lately because of his medical condition, where he’s been getting seizures and such because of many allegations and a reported reaction to codeine. Is drug use something you encourage younger rappers to be more cautious about in order to make the industry better?

Raekwon: Yeah, I think sometimes we take drugs to get into the zone. And with me, I smoke weed. I know better than anyone else who do what they do. But I say at the end of the day, just know what you’re putting into your body. Do what you want to do. Do I encourage dudes to do it? No, because if it ain’t for you and you can’t handle it, then don’t fuck with it. If you can handle it and that’s what you want to do, then you’re a grown-ass man. If that enhances you as an artist, then hey, who the fuck am I to tell you don’t do what you want to do. For me to encourage the young cats to think that’s what you got to do to get to the next level, then nah, I ain’t saying that

Sometimes go get your fucking 40 ounce. Get a beer or something. Or don’t fucking do it. If you’re a real emcee, then you can just be everything-free, like you don’t need that to get inspired. You’ve gotta respect that, too. It’s up to that person but I don’t think you need drugs to enhance who you are. I think we do it because we are who we are

Hip Hop DX: Did you or any of the Wu members every try encouraging ODB to relax on that stuff? Because you guys lost a good friend through that

Raekwon: Of course. But like I said, men are men and they’ll do what they want to do. You can tell someone something but at the end of the day, they’re going to make a decision