You can also access the interview on DCRAPTV.com by clicking here.

First off thanks for hitting up DCRAPTV.COM for your feature Interview and Promotions Rahim.

No problem fam

Q. How did you get in this Rap Game?

I started writing rhymes in 7th grade and
bought a pair of turntables in 8th grade and taught myself to scratch and mix. I
had looked on the back of an EPMD album and saw that they had produced their own
music, so I automatically assumed, with no knowledge of the game, that rappers
produced their own music so I started to learn how to make beats. I hooked up with a group called Tap, Ghost and Phobia who are a veteran Tampa group, and learned some of the business through them. Recording, putting on your own shows, really having that D.I.Y (do it yourself) attitude. I was in a group with my man Butta who I was doing beats for at the time and we would do shows with Tap Ghost and Phobia throughout the area. We started to get some recognition and people with 'start up' labels in the area would holla at us but the business was usually never correct. I soon left for school and during that time Butta decided he didn't want to do music
anymore so he left. I just kept going. I started rhyming more and more and really
studied the business of music. I literally would read any book or magazine that had anything to do with the business. I recorded some songs which soon became what is now my first album 'Freedom/Resurrection', put it out, and it started a buzz in the area. From there I have been doing shows, recording, producing and writing.

Q. What are Tap, Ghost and Phobia doing now - Are they still in the Rap Game?
Unfortunately no, well not as a group, they split up in 1998, surprising their fans like myself and many others. They are like one of those best groups that you'll probably never hear of, they got alot of respect from the true heads in Tampa and still do. They recorded alot of material and they were doing their thing since 1990. If you can remember at that time artists did not have that entrepreneur mentality cause this was before Master P, RocaFella, Cash Money, so there was no examples to follow. So as an artist at that time all you wanted to do was get your demo to an A&R to get signed. They were about to sign to Cold Chillin Records at one time, home to Big Daddy Kane, the Juice Crew, but the deal fell through. I wish they would have pressed up and sold their stuff at their shows cause their was definately a demand. But everything happens for a reason. Ghost or 'Funkghost' released a great solo album in 1999 called 'Ultra Boogie Highlife' that got alot of
critical acclaim and he toured promoting the album, and now he is doing production for other artists, Ghost was the beatmaker and one of the MC's for Tap, Ghost, and Phobia and he basically developed his own sound that some cats who make beats in Tampa, heard and ran with it. Tap is still writing and is planning to make an album while Phobia has already finished his and is about to release it.

Q. You stated you are from Tampa, Florida - What is the Hip Hop scene like out there? As far as rappers go, its kind of like crabs in a bucket. Everybody wants their little click to blow and everyone else to fail. There are so many egos and no humility. I used to think it was just Tampa until I started doing shows in other states and would talk to artists from other places and they would say the same thing about the scene there. But its not all bad. You have different styles of Hip Hop here. You have alot of New York transplants, like myself, down here so there is a large group of people that cater to east coast sound. Of course this is the Dirty South so crunk and bounce and Booty music is also represented as well as West coast
and Slow tapes and all that good stuff. Tampa is really a melting pot of music and people cause there is also a lot of people here from the carribbean. So theres alot of Soca, Calypso, Reggae, salsa. People are open here. You may look through somebody's cd selection and find Lil Jon, Talib Kweli, Sizzla, Jadakiss.

Q. You said you performed in other States - Where?
I did a little tour through Boston, New York, Rhode Island through some connects
that I have, but I had to cut it short due to some legal issues with some members of the crew.

Q. And which style of music in Tampa is the dominate music form? Hip Hop of course! Number one. All forms of Caribbean music have to come in second
(Reggae, Reggaeton, Dancehall, Salsa, Calypso) cause there are clubs here that just play those types of music, but they will still play Hip Hop between the songs. Hip Hop rules the world.

Q. How do you view or feel about the Underground Independent Rap/Hip Hop scene of today? Overall I think its good. Artists have wised up to the fact that you don't see alot of money signing to a major unless you have moved units independently. You can be on a major and sell 100,000 units and be in debt to the label, while you can sell 100,000 units independent and profit tremendously. But it's not easy at all. You really have to grind hard relentlessly. As far as the music goes, there are some great independent acts out now like MF Doom and Masta Killa. What I don't like
though are these biting cats. Dudes that sound like Jay-Z, Lloyd Banks, Pac, BIG.
Nowadays alot of rappers have no individuality.

I FEEL YOU FOR REAL MAN.

Q. Have you collaborated with other artists from Florida? Yes, I have collaborated with my man Akil who is on the album, I collaborated with a Reggae artist called Super D who is on the video single 'Ring of Fire' on the
album. I also have done some side stuff with my boy Y-Not from UBC.

Q. A Reggae artist - WOW. So how was that Collaboration with Super D?
It was great. Super D is a incredible talent. He just goes into the booth and knocks out his vocals in one take. On 'Ring of Fire' he just did his thing, no vocal coaching or nothing. He is a total professional. Oh, and to clarify something, I am talking about SUPER D, the reggae artist, Mr Boom Wa Dat from College Hill, not the rapper that calls himself Supa D. But I enjoyed the whole experience, in the future I would like to do more collaborations with artists outside of Hip Hop

Q. What sort of advice would you give to a young lil nigga trying to get in this
Rap game today? Perserverence, Focus, HARD, HARD, HARD, HARD WORK. TV will have you so fooled in thinking that you just make a song and hand it to your boy who knows somebody or just spit for this dude or whatever. Thats nothing. First thing I would tell him is know where Hip Hop came from, discover the old school, find out who the Cold Crush Brothers were, why is Schoolly D relevent, Marley Marl? How did Kool Herc birth Hip Hop? Get the 1st Run DMC record. Watch Wild Style and Krush Grove, listen to Criminal Minded, NWA,Public Enemy. Study the past, it will make you a stronger artist. Alot of kids running around here rhyming, their style is one dimensional, because they really only know one dimension of this music, the commercial stuff on BET and MTV. Its crazy to see how many shorties out here talking about they love hip hop and want to rap and they keep it true and as soon as you start poppin off these questions they give you the bad beer face. Some of
these kids never even heard of Run DMC until Jam Master Jay died.(G.B.T.D) Secondly I would tell him to get the book, This Business of Music by Donald Passman and study it like the Bible or Qu'ran. Don't sign anything until you understand every detail of that book. There are too many wannabee Dame/Puffy fake niggas out here with a microwave label who can't do nothing for you trying to sign a kid to a legalized slavery contract, and kids fall for it cause they got good talk game. Know about having a good release clause in your contract, make sure cats can really
do what they say they can do for you within a certain period of time. You don't want three years to go by and you still promoting your debut album and the dude next door don't even know you rap. I've seen this.

Q. Are you recording or do you have a CD out? Yes, the name of the album is Freedom/Resurrection, some have called it Freedom, some call it Resurrection.

Q. Is this your first CD release?
Yes, officially.

Q. With Two titles like that - Is it a double CD? no, it represents different things. I can only speak for myself. When I listen to an artist, I want to hear their individual view on things - how they see life, things that they've been through. Slick Rick did that, Ice Cube did that. I am kind of tired of hearing the same routine topics on an album. You have your club song, your girl song and blah blah blah . . . Everybody is not a pimp with ice who flips mad bricks and ain't afraid to shoot a nigga in front of police. I have watched alot of rappers make their records and alot of them really feel that they are confined to just talking about this crap because people will only buy records with that formula and that's what the most popular rapper's are doing. And then the same rapper saying all that shit will be so pussy, who never shot no one, wearing some silver and will be BROKE!!!! So its Freedom as far as freedom to be yourself and not have to pretend, creative freedom. But its not some abstract space crap. Just that Bangin Street, Hip Hop that we've all grown to love.

Q. Who produced the tracks for this album? I did them all.

OHhhh, So you produce beats as well.

Yeah I've been making beats as long as i've been rapping. I'm always looking for more vinyl and digging in the crates and I DJ too. I am a serious record collector

Q. With this CD - What sort of promotions are you putting behind it to push it out Ithere? We are shooting videos to promote the album singles, matter of fact we just finished the second video for the single, 'On the Corner', that we shot in New York. Videos generate alot of attention. As far as other promotions, we do just
about everything that a major would do, although not on their level of course, but we put up posters, perform as much as we can, touring(which is very important), we are planning another tour for October. We do radio spots, merchandising, whatever it takes.

Q. What programs or music equipment you use to produce tracks? I use the ASR-10 which in my opinion is one of the best sampling keyboards made. I've tried to use Fruity Loops, I may jack some sounds from it but I will play it over on the ASR. Really I just jack sounds from everywhere onto the ASR. From the
Triton to the Fantom, I know dudes who have them and they just let me get the
sounds from them. Why pay $3,000 for a keyboard that the company will just upgrade in 2-3 years when you can just jack it? I started making beats in like 94, this was before all these computer programs like REASON, and Fruity Loops came out. So you had to get either an MPC, a SP 1200 or an ASR, or the EPS, your TR-808's, 909's. Ghost had the EPS and thats what I learned to make beats on, the ASR was like the next level of the EPS, they are both made by Ensoniq, the ASR had more sampling time and has an effects parameter where you can have your choice of numerous effects, like you could run your sample through a guitar amp effect and your sound
would sound like it is coming from a guitar amp. So you can make street beats with that real grimy feel to them or you could make your beats sound very clean. And you can sequence your beat to how you want it to play in the final song version. Have your high hats drop here, snare drop here...so on and so on. And the ASR operates the same way as the EPS so I had to get it. Thats all I need now, but these dudes that are starting to do this they don't really have to buy all these keyboards and MPC's, all they need is a computer, You could get Cubase and they have all the keyboard sounds there, and it samples. I'm just too lazy to go learn it right now. So I'll just drag my ASR around for now.

Q. Give Us a description of your production style on the album Rahim?
Soul music, street soul music, melodic sonics with a twisted adrenaline edge.
Hardcore but your girl might try to steal your cd. If I have to name commercial artist that the production sound would resemble, not that I was really influenced by them. I would say Public Enemy, Wu Tang, Michael Jackson Thriller album, Dr Dre, Tribe Called Quest, Robert Johnson, Portishead, James Brown, Prince Purple Rain album, Sex Pistols, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley.

Q. What sort of concepts and subjects do you touch on on your album? Life in general. I touch on some street subjects as far as surviving and trying to
make it. I also talk about economics as far as brothers realizing the power of our dollar. Black people spend over 300 billion a year in this country, if we tried to keep our money in our communities, spending amongst ourselves, we could improve our condition. I also talk about having awareness, being aware. But there are records for the party too, Hip Hop has always been about having fun.

I FEEL YOU.

Q. Is there plans to record another album? Yes, this album is the first of 3 albums that I will do.

Q. will you eventually fade into the background and continue your CEO status? If so, when?

Yes I will, when the third album is released. I would like to be able to sit back and concentrate more on developing artists on the label and focus more on producing as well as venturing out with the business.

Q. What is the title to your Record label? VaultClassic Records.

Q. Why the name Vault Classic? Well its called VaultClassic because a Vault is something where you store your valuables in, whatever is of value to you, to me thats Hip Hop. Its the voice of those who can't be heard, or were not supposed to be heard. Classic is just something that is timeless, regardless of what period of time that art or item is in.

Q. There is so many artists doing the CEO thing now. Are you the artist as well as the CEO? As cliche as it sounds, yes.

Q. How does it feel to record music and then have to conduct and handle the daily business of the label? Honestly it can be too much at times. As an artist you just want to focus on your craft and let someone else handle the business side, so it won't weigh you down creatively. Although as an artist alot of times you will get robbed if your not on top of your business. It can be a blessing and a curse at the same time.

Q. Is there any other artist along with you on the Vault Classic roster? We are in the process of signing 4 new artists but at this time I can't disclose
names until everything is finalized.

Q. How is the radio support out there in Tampa for underground and Independent Hip Hop Rahim? Zero. Underground artists here have to go the traditional out the trunk route to get heard here. Clear Channel owns the radio station here, and If one of the 5 corporate labels ain't co-signing your music, you get no play. There is a community station here but it is not as popular as the clear channel stations. The people that walk into stores and buy cd's listen to the clear channel radio. I know a rapper here who got major play on the community radio, they were playing 5 songs from his album on one night but it did not help his record sales at all.

Q. DAYUMMMM, It's like that down there?!

Yeah, this place, as far as commercial radio goes, really does not try to support their local artists, and there are some talented artists here. Tampa is one of the only places thats like that cause when I lived in New York, I remember Marley Marl and Pete Rock's Future Flavors and they would play unknown up and coming artists, but they don't do it here.

Q. But how is the out the Trunk method doing for you and other local artists in
Tampa? Good as far as you get back what you put in. Its like that saying, 'the man that works like a slave, eats like a
king' , it is a very hard grind, you have to stay on it. Alot of cats make a cd and sit back and think everything will just come to them and it doesn't work like that, you got to go out and grind. I do shows throughout the area and go out of state and do shows too, and if you put on a good show you will sell alot of cd's. Plus I got the online sales happening through undergroundhiphop.com
(www.undergroundhiphop.com) and through the label's website www.vaultclassic.com
And Thanks to God that we got the videos made cause from having them on rotation on underground video shows they brought us alot of sales through the internet. So it's not just the trunk anymore.

Q. That's tight Rahim - So the Video shows are really working for your album.
Which videos shows are bringing in sales for you? Distortion 2 Static, Video City, Underground Music TV, those are the ones that I can think of off top.

Q. Any last words and ShoutOuts?
Of course, I want to thank Skinny Corleone and the staff of DCRAP TV for getting at me Hopefully when I go to the Millions More March we can get up. I want to say what up to Super D, Akil, Briz, Mike Flam, Tap, Y-Not and Moe, UBC, Dino Velvet, Damon, Bob and everybody at Sound Idea, Janee, Cara, Tanya, Shallah Unique, Idris, Video City, Bryan Tyson at Deep Productions, Nobody Special, Phobia, Josh, Vinyl Fever, White Spawn, Divine, thats it. Cop that album: Rahim Samad, Freedom/Resurrection through the website: www.vaultclassic.com Support Independent Hip Hop.