There are some people who do
shit and don't really care if
you like it or not; they do it
because their one friend with
the fucked-up sense of humor
will love it. But they do such a
good job on it that every-
body likes it, and then it
gets picked up by a major
PRINCE PAUL
label and they start making more money
than they've made in a long time. Prince
Paul is one of these people.
True 54: Let's talk about your new album.
Prince Paul: OK. It's The Prince Among Thieves.
And this is for Thrasher magazine, right?
Yeah.
Good, good. I like that magazine. I used to get it
for a second. I actually have a skateboard.
Oh, word? You still skate?
No. But I have one. It's nice. It's a Zoo York. I'm
thinking one of these years I'll show off and break
it out. I can't break any bones or teeth right now.
I'm trying to make my money.
So was this new one inspired by Bushwick
Bill's Phantom of the Rapra?
No. I actually had never heard the album. I heard
the title. No, the new one I've been wanting to do
since the Doo-Doo Man days, but I never had the
budget nor the backing to actually do it. It's an old
concept. Ironically enough, later in my career
when my popularity is as much as it was eight
years ago, I finally got the interest and the support
to do this album.
Your last record came out like three
times,
right?
was
Psychoanalysis? It came out twice. It came out on
Wordsound initially, and that was in '96 maybe,
and then the weirdest thing happened. Actually,
Psychoanalysis was my farewell to the business. I
was just like, "Yo, things are going bad." My friend
I wanted me to do this record and I threw on all
these tracks that everybody hated, and I just made
light of a lot of things. And it did well, and Tommy
Boy picked it up, and the Tommy Boy one came
out like a year later, with a few new cuts on it and
Automated did a remix on one of the songs. It was
a weird turn of events. My farewell record actually
became my introduction to doing more things. My
popularity actually increased off a record that I
thought was totally obscure and everybody would
hate. What happened I think was that it came at a
time when people just
wanted something dif-
ferent. I don't think it
was necessarily that
it was so great, but
it was different, and
it got notoriety for
being different.
You've
always
been the
skit dude,
from De La
Soul days,
so that's just kind of how this evolved
into an album?
A lot of my stuff is skit-based, even
Psychoanalysis, but basically Prince Among Thieves
is a kiddie record. When I was a kid, besides just
loving
music, that was the thing I was really into.
One of f my favorite ones was GI Joe In Search of the
Stolen Idol. I cannot find that at all. So if the read-
ers out there see it anywhere, pick it up and send it.
to me at Tommy Boy. But anyway, all these kiddie
records, like the read-along ones and the ones that
were cheap and didn't have the read-alongs and
you kinda had to use your imagination, that's what
I based this on. It's an adult kiddie record.
Are you coming out with a comic book or
something, to go along with it?
I'm trying to come out with a movie.
That was my next question. Are you coming
out with a No Limit style, Last Don shit?
I'm going to do it even cheesier. I'm coming out
with a camcorder, and I'm going to piece it all
together. But I'm going to do a camcorder with
class. I'm going to get some Super-8 film-if
you've seen She's Gotta Have It, it's going to be
something like that. Classy low-budge.
You should put I on off-Broadway, like a real
opera and shit.
I wish I could, man. Hopefully when the album
comes out there'll be some fool out there like,
"Wow, this might work!" and he'll give me a call.
That would be crazy. Who was your favorite
person to work with on this album?
SO
See, this is gonna sound corny because it'll sound
like what everyone else would say, but I like work-
ing Iwith everyone. Everybody was cool because
they brought their own element to the album,
every time they did something I was equally excit-
ed. As they did the part it kinda pieced together
what I had in my mind. I'd say the most interesting
I would have to be working with Kool Keith. He
came in, and everybody was giving me these hor-
ror stories about working with him. I've known him
for a while but never worked with him, and he
actually was the most prepared. He read gun
books and the whole nine. He was into character.
His acting was really bad, though.
So how much writing do you actually do for
the parts? Do you just say, "OK, here's my
concept, I want you to be Crazy Lou and
come up
with some ill shit?"
Not for the screenplay. As far as the rhymes are
concerned, I just let them go. I'd give them the sce-
nario, like, "You're Crazy Lou and you're this age,
and you smoke crack, and you do this..." And then
tell them to write about it. The reason I've got these
people is I love the way they write, so I give them the
freedom. As far as the acting parts, though, I wrote
out the whole screenplay exactly like a movie,
I
because the intention was be movie. It's
just that I don't know how to make movies.
I know how to make records. So the
soundtrack had to come first. It was in
that format; I wrote it out and people
acted it, which was difficult
because they're not really actors.
Sha and Breeze were the main characters,
right? Were they just some of your homeboys
that you've been wanting to put on?
Sha, who plays the character True in the story, is
actually a guy who lives around my way who I was
trying to work with a while
ago. But I liked his
voice his voice is really distinctive, and for a proj-
ect like this voices are really important, because
since you can't see the character, the character's
voice has to more or less describe what he is. And
since his voice is raspy and grimy by nature, he fit
into the part. And this kid named Breeze; he's with
this group called The Juggaknots. And he's just an
incredible MC, and his voice and rhyme skills also
fit the texture of the person I was looking for.
kinda worked out. I kinda got people who fit the
characters so they wouldn't have to stray far from
who they are.
Outside of this' project, is there someone
who you just love to work with? Or someone
you'd like to work with but never have?
If I said no that would sound really wack.
Basically I have everyone that I've ever idolized
on this album, with the exception of Shock G. I
really wanted to get him. But I lost contact when
he moved out here from the Bay Area. And I
wanted to
get Lou Rawls on there, but his manag-
er was like, "Anything to do with rap is bad."
Despite what my background was, they didn't
want to deal with me, which is really wack. Very
stereotypical. Other than that, I got everybody. I
would've liked to work with more comedians, like
Tim Meadows, from Saturday Night Live. I wanted
him to be the announcer.
Who's your favorite artist, that you always
gotta have on your turntables or in your tape
deck
or your CD player?
It l
t kinda changes. . I was heavy into NWA like four
or five years ago, and it lasted up until like a year
ago. My NWA Efil4zaggin tape has no words on it
it's so played out. I have it in every format and
configuration. I thought Dr Dre was totally incred-
ible. He's still dope, but his earlier work appealed
to me more. I listen to a lot of quirky stuff. I like
Outkast, as far as new stuff. I like people who
come from that camp, like Goodie Mob and all
that. They're dope. Master P is interesting for
entertainment value.
enter
He seems to come up in every interview I
do. Somehow che sneaks his head in
ever
there. He's so large he's everywhere, no mat-
ter who I'm talking to.
He has some type of influence I guess. In addi-
tion to whatever rit is, it's totally entertaining. It's
just ill. Any time you have a big tank in your video
that runs through a gymnasium and a gorilla does
flying leaps and dunks, you've got me. It's just
funny. Every time I see anything by him, he makes
me laugh. I don't know if that's his intention, but it
makes me laugh.
Anything else you'd like to add?
Tell 'em I'll outskate anybody. In 2001 I'm going
after all skaters over 40. Any spot in the Bay Area.
Any pool, anything. I'm up for a battle.
-True 54
LUCKY
LUCKY
33
earings
LUCKY
ANTEED
GUARANT
LUCKY
GUARAN
ARANTEED
LUCKY G
THE
NEW LUCKY
LINE-UP FOR "99
WILL SET STANDARDS
AND SHATTER SPEED
RECORDS...
GUARANTEED
LUCKY
bearing
LUCKY
ABEC 3
earings
beari
LUCKY
LUCKY
5
bearings
LUCKY
ABEC 5
bearing
LUCKY
LUCKY
Биледа
bearings
LUCKY
ABEC 7
BOB BURNQUIST MIKE CARROLL MARK GONZALES PAT DUFFY
KENNY HUGHES SEAN SHEFFEY WADE SPEYER DAN DREHOBL
O
98 THRASHER