In Washington D.C. we don’t
have a king we have an undisputed kingpin. Kingpin Slim is an
ultra talented artist that everyone on the DC hip hop scene
recognizes as one of the premiere artists in the area
by LD Williams
The Notorious B.I.G. reigned as
the king of New York. His untimely demise left the throne vacant
and artists still vie for the status of hip hop royalty.
Atlanta’s T.I. and Houston’s Lil Flip engaged in a bitter feud
over the title of "King of the South". While artists in hip hop
across the country proclaim and feud over their royal status in
hip hop, the Capital City is a little bit different. There are
no arguments about who the king is because there are no kings
here. In Washington D.C. we don’t have a king we have an
undisputed kingpin. Kingpin Slim is an ultra talented artist
that everyone on the DC hip hop scene recognizes as one of the
premiere artists in the area. The acclaim for Slims undeniable
talent is not just local banter. In April 2006 he received
national attention when he was featured in The Source magazine’s
famed Unsigned Hype column. Now for the first time ever Kingpin
Slim opens up and talks to CRED magazine. He talks about his
career, his plans, and his future this is the story of Kingpin
Slim the way he wants you to know it.
CRED: Thank you for taking time
out to talk to CRED magazine.
Kingpin Slim:
Ain’t no problem. What’s going on
Kingpin Slim Five Dollar High is now available let’s get it.
CRED: Let’s just get it from the
beginning you were born when, where?
Kingpin Slim: I was born in
George Washington Hospital in Northwest, Washington D.C. I’m
from uptown. I have been uptown for the majority of my life so
Washington D.C. born and raised.
CRED: What musical influences
were in your household?
Kingpin Slim: Well my mother is
West Indian, my father is West Indian so we listened to a lot of
calypso and reggae; that was a lot of the early stuff going on
in my household.
CRED: How did hip hop get in
your household?
Kingpin Slim: Hip Hop never got
in my house through my parents per se. It was something that I
brought to the house, something that I found that I fell in love
with started dibbling and dabbling started writing music, found
out I was pretty good at it and took it and ran with it.
CRED: How did you get exposed to
hip hop?
Kingpin Slim: Jukebox. The
Jukebox turned me on to hip hop. Some of the first artists, the
first song I remember liking was Ice T when he had the song
"H-U-S-T-L-E-R, hustler, hustler" back in the early nineties. I
remember that song, loved it and ran with it.
CRED: You made reference to Ice
T but before you became an artist who helped mold you as a fan?
Kingpin Slim:
Early in the game 2Pac, I was a Jay-Z fan out of the gate before
Jay-Z sold five million records. I was a Nas fan out of the
gate. I had this dude that lived in my neighborhood that turned
me on to Nas when Illmatic first came out. All of those dudes
that exemplified lyricism and being legendary your 2Pac’s, your
Jay-Z’s, your Scarface’s. I had this dude who lived round my way
named B-Love that played in a band called Simplicity. He was
probably the first dude that I was around that could really rap.
He could do this back then so I took a little game from him took
it and ran with it.
CRED: What game did he give you?
Make reference to all the people that helped mold you as an
artist.
Kingpin Slim:
The thing with me is I came up in a go-go band in my
neighborhood that’s being on stage live, performing in front of
neighborhoods, rowdy lil niggas, just people that will stand
there with their arms crossed waiting to hear what you have to
say. I caught the bug to be a performer in my go-go band Young
Bucks implemented that and realized maybe I can take the solo
rap thing and take it more seriously and run with it. Around
that time you had your Jay-Z, your Nas’, your Biggie’s, Pac
getting ready to die or had died at the time I’m still a kid but
I am realizing that this is something that I want to do and I am
taking it very seriously. So between that and being in the
streets of DC at the time which was crazy; I think at the time
we had murder rate back then; and to see all that go on when I
was a kid. Seeing all that kind of shaped and molded it to where
it was now. Back then it was rat but it was definitely what put
it together.
CRED: What was your street
involvement in DC and how much did it impact your music?
Kingpin Slim: Coming up I had a
couple of uncles that used to hustle. I was a smart kid in
school I never really had bad grades. I kind of sought out the
streets. I wanted to be out there, it was a little different for
me than it was for someone else. I guess I was turned out by the
things I seen. All my uncles and I had three of them; all had
Mustangs when the Mustang was a hot car. Just seeing that it
just kind of developed more and more. Then you get to an age
where you are kind of looking at yourself like ‘damn I cant
afford these new shoes or I cant afford this new Eddie Bauer
coat so I jumped out there and started fucking around. From
there I started running around in the streets, I’m rapping, I am
doing both at the same time so of course the streets started to
influence my raps to 100 percent that was how Kingpin Slim was
born at an early age.
CRED: When did you know you
could make a career out of hip hop?
Kingpin Slim: Well you figure
96-97 I was a teenager, I was in a go-go band we were young,
young as hell probably just starting high school. I figure we
see 100-150 people every time we play and they always
gravitating toward me telling me that I am nice that I could do
it; so the confidence just grew and grew and grew to the point
that I knew I could take it and do it. Not just take it and do
it but really make some money off of it, not only make money off
of it but put my city on the map. So it was an ambition born out
of that time.
CRED: What capacity did you
perform in the go-go band?
Kingpin Slim:
I was second mic on the front line. I was a rapper they would do
their pockets and cut to me. I was flowin and I used to shake
the tambourines too. (laughs)
CRED: Are you still involved
with the members of the go-go band?
Kingpin Slim: Most of them are
my best friend to this day.
CRED: What was it like going
from being a member of the band to being a solo artist? Describe
the transition.
Kingpin Slim:
Well the new millennium hit 2000, I came home; I went to
bootcamp for a distribution charge.
CRED: How long were you gone
for?
Kingpin Slim:
About a year. When I came home I started messing with these
dudes Cybehype to record what was supposed to be my debut album
DC Ghettolistics. That is when I started to run with it hard,
you know get the beats, make the songs and see what I sound like
and really feel like this is going to be serious for me.
CRED:
What was your thought process for creating the album DC
Ghettolistics?
Kingpin Slim:
I didn’t know shit I was 19 years old. I didn’t know anything
about nothing. I wanted to rap I thought I sounded good so I
figured you get in there it sounds good and people put it out. I
did know too much about the business. The actual album got
flooded the whole studio got flooded. Back then we recorded on
A-DATS the masters got flooded. It was pretty much a wrap for
that whole DC Ghettolistics project. I had it in someone else’s
hands they really didn’t know how to promote it at the time.
They had the ambition to do it but not necessarily the game plan
to do it and I learned early on that you really have to plot,
plan, and execute if you do not do all three you are going to
lose.
CRED: How long was the recording
process for the project that never made it to light?
Kingpin Slim: It was at least a year and a
half to see all that work go down the drain it was rough on me.
At the time we had a group uptown called Wildlife Kingdom they
were poppin they sold ten thousand cop
ies independently which was a big deal in DC at
the time. The founder of the group named Scrap Tommy Small
recruited me to be in the group and we worked on that project in
02-03. The Wildlife Project. One of the homies in the group T we
called him Sleepy Eyed bandit got shot on a playground on
Kennedy Street since then we have been struggling to find our
footing so I started back on the solo thing in 2004.
CRED:
