Liberator 3.4
Still Standing: The Story Of I-Self Devine
words: Pensoul
 

Once there was a story of a place called Minneapolis; a city that was deeply bred in the fine arts of Hip Hop culture. Whether the legendary King Viper for visuals, or The Minneapolis Body Breakers. How about KeL C and Sugar Free. What about Crazy T or Devastatin' D? The International Breakers the heart breakers, Juke Box, B-Fresh?
The under-documentation of Hip Hop in Minneapolis is a shame to the heads around the nation. Minneapolis is a city that has held some of the world's finest writers, breakers, emcee’s, poets and deejays that world has never seen. As one of the few emcees that had the opportunity to witness the struggles and strife of the local legends and pioneers of Hip Hop in Minneapolis, I was honored to sit down with one that refers to himself as the "Last Man Standing."

Pensoul: So as an emcee who has lived in a variety of places, L.A. to Minneapolis to Atlanta, what city would you say has had the biggest affect on you as an artist?

I Self Devine: Well really they are three places that could never be compared cause they all contributed different things. The origin and birth started in LA and that’s real for what it was. A lot of people that were not from LA couldn’t have seen what happened. See, gangs to me are Hip Hop. I was able to see the pre-gangster shit, what gangsters were listening to. That was my introduction. See, I am also a child of KDay, the radio station that played 24 hours a day hip hop, hearing interviews with Run DMC. My mom was on some next level shit anyway, as far as progressiveness, so she was one of the ones that introduced me to Hip Hop. So that was like the origin. Then coming to Minneapolis was like a training ground cause coming from L.A. I seen that you had to work a lot harder in terms of making it in the business being here (Minneapolis). In L.A. I actually went into studios and performed, but here was the first time I was actually shopping demo tapes and getting denial letters. This was where my freestyle skills were actually sharpened, cause back in the day, for whatever reason, cats here were really stressing freestyle, and making sure you was on it. So by the time I got to Atlanta I was swift and cats were like "nah you ain't from Minneapolis" because we came with a whole click. Being in Minneapolis is like swimming up stream with the salmon so when you get in cool areas you come in and deebo shit. Atlanta was another form of struggle. It was a return to how Hip Hop used to be for me in like '89 and '90 where you seen a population that was mostly colored, which was ill. You had sisters coming up to you like yeah I like your lyrics. They weren’t trying to touch or be on some ol' groupie shit. They were coming like students and that was cool.

PS: So do you feel that being able to travel to these different places was meant to be in preparing you for your what your getting ready to do right now?

ISD: Put it this way: as we deal with life right now we have the choice and the will to do what it is that we choose to do for right now, every second and every moment. From an overview, it is always written. What we dealing with right now is already on the shelf. So we are actually just in the moment relishing the choice, but yeah everything that happens is supposed to happen there are no mistakes in this world.

PS: So with your experience what is it you feel you bring to the industry?

ISD: How I see it, for every dude you see in the industry, it took 20 or 30 dudes that never really got nowhere to allow that person to exist. I feel like I am the tail end of the original flavor. I really over-stand Hip Hop and Hip Hop is everything and these outside fads can’t dictate me because I am an originator and creator and I remember how it was, that first love like when you meet that first female. I consider myself a purist but even as a purist you have to expect certain things to change. But for me I feel more so than anything the fact that I am an emcee. When performing I give a hundred percent, it’s like fighting and having sex.

PS: Given that, could you explain to the new cats how important a good emcee bounce is?

ISD: A good emcee is close to like a pimp. Not like in the aspect of exploiting people, but just in terms of like laying down the law and having to be very confident. But you know it’s a double edge sword with anything. But of course your suppose to deal with the righteous angle, cause the crowd wants somebody to feel confident in, we all want something to believe in regardless if it’s a religion or something that someone said to you in a style of music. So if you come in and let the people see it in your eyes then that’s confidence. You gotta let your personality shine. It's knowing you gotta perform even if it's five people. You gotta just zone out. It’s always being humble. You know at the end of the day we are all just regular. Freestyling is important as well, if you got a technical malfunction you can’t just be stuck on stupid you gotta go back to the beginning of the cut unless you got a crazy fan base and every body knows your joints, and if they do know 'em, you can adlib it and flip and they gotta respect that it's just an added twist. Yo, for me, being a emcee, the show must go on. If the lights go out you just keep rhyming. If the mic falls we just keep rhyming. If I fall down I just keep rhyming. If the Deejay falls through the stage we just keep rhyming cause that’s what we came to do.

PS: A lot of the original heads out here that love the style of music you represent are crushed when I play them your newest joints. Many of them do not know about you and the ones that do don’t have access to your music or shows. What steps are you taking to make sure that the fans you have not tapped into yet get exposure to your new joint?

ISD: Right now I’m just slowly assembling a team. I feel from my position there has to be more aggressive advertising, going on the road, and having a right squad, a good road manager, a good manager. For me, if I was to classify my music I would say that it is intelligent street music that captures both aspects of life, you know I gotta educate. If I can't speak on something in life that is going to motivate someone, I feel it’s my job as an emcee to express things that others may not be able to express for themselves. If I can do that then I feel as though I’m doing my part. Some of the music I make could have been made in 1988 and at that time there was not a lot of music coming out and everything that came out was good. There really weren’t as many distractions. And for me I kept holding on to that underground aesthetic. One thing that I feel makes an artist underground and not sub-underground is the fact that the unsuccessful underground artists do not really work on their choruses, some of their beat selections and things of that nature. See for me it's like I am a scientist and it's cool passing on my stuff to other scientists, but they all know what we know. It's kinda like if you are a teacher and some of your students are doing well, then let them do well. You want the dude that’s like "yo there is something else about him," cause nine times out of ten, that dude is the one.

PS: So you just recently came off a tour?

ISD: Yeah I was on tour for about two and a half months from September '03 to December '03.

PS: How has touring changed your view of the game?

ISD: Each tour that we do is getting better and better, but I’ve really been touring since about '96. This one though was more put together. I didn’t have to chase my paperwork. I didn’t have to corner promoters in the bathroom this time, so that was good. So the flip side of that was that who we were going out with wasn’t necessary to our audience. It was a double edged sword. I use that a lot because there is always a good side and a destructive side to anything. The fans were open but that is not necessarily our fan base. I want to have a wide range and be able to deal with different genres. But it's good, at the end of the day I would say that I probably touched a quarter million people. Who we went out with was popular and had a lot of fans. I was able to touch some legendary clubs that probably would have taken me a while, like the Fillmore where Jimi Hendrix burnt the guitar. When I was telling my mom and other family elders they were zoning out like aw shit. It was bugged out. There was a barbershop right under there where I was getting cut. It was like an OG spot, they had all the pictures and whatnot. There were some brothers in there getting a trim. We just started choppin' it up. I got to network, you know. People are like "yeah I've never heard of you, but you're ill." Then there are some people that be like "yeah I've been following you since… and they name some obscure title. I'm like oh snap you got that?

PS: Can you name three things that you have learned that has changed you and how you view that path you will walk from this point forward.

ISD: The first thing I learned is that regardless if I may hurt someone’s feeling or whatever, I've got to be honest because my conscious really bothers me--it doesn’t necessarily bother me, it just tells me things. It just stays on me like "try harder" or "you weren’t necessarily truthful about that situation." The other part to that is that you are only as weak as your secrets. Another thing is respecting your ability to be creative and realizing that there is nothing wrong with art and commerce and meeting each other. There is nothing wrong with being compensated for your work. You just do it well, make it well, and craft it well. I'm trying to do that as well as walk off the path and create my own path. The third thing is to get money. You gotta prove you don’t need it and that’s been hard. You gotta just put it out there and not stress over it--what’s gonna come is gonna come.