Audio Consequence
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly feat. Kanye West

MP3: Consequence, how you doing? Consequence: Good man, how are you? Not too bad. So, yeah, man, I just wanted to talk a bit about the album and sort of about your history in the game. First of all, Don't Quit Your Day Job is in stores now. How are you feeling about the response to that? I feel good. I feel real good. You know, it's growing and it's great to see some stuff when it starts from zero and just continues to grow and be received well, like this month the Rolling Stone, Musiq Soulchild had a feature rather and they said, "name your three favorite records" and he said "Don't Quit Your Day Job is my favorite record out right now." Nice. You know, "go get Don't Quit Your Day Job. That's the s***." You know what I'm saying? So it's like, it's beautiful when you see like how word of mouth, and how a great album, you know, regardless of all the, political adversity that it faces, it's like, well you just make something that's really for people, and they take it well. Yeah, right on, man. Now, a few months ago, you were saying how anybody that bought the album and couldn't find a song that they liked on it, that you would offer a money-back guarantee, you'd give them their money back. What like motivated you to do that? I mean, a lot of times people equate low sales to like unbearable music. You know what I'm saying? And my whole point with making such a brash statement was like, "Yo, this record is good. I don't care what nobody says. And it's mine." And however, whatever I got to do to let the world know this is a great record, you know what I'm saying, and not because I made it but because—I listened to it. The social commentary in it applies to so many people. Totally. And just because somebody doesn't necessarily know how to market it or whatever the case is, that doesn't take away from the validity of what the product is. If I got to go out on a limb, I'll be like, "Yo, I'll pay…whoever don't like it gets his money back out of my pocket," cuz I got it. (laughs) Word. And are you working on a follow-up already? Are you in the studio or are you just grinding out with this or what? Yeah, the next album is called You Win Some You Lose Some. Is that going to be out this year or next year? Well, definitely next year. Hopefully, we'll see. It may come late this year. Right on, man. Now I want to take you back a bit. I mean, obviously, you've been doing this for a long time, working with Tribe back in the day and whatnot. You know, there was a time there you were on the Tribe records and "Stressed Out" was a big single. And then there was a time where you were sort of, people didn't really hear from you for a while. And then you came back hard with all the mixtapes. What were you doing in that downtime? Well, I've always been recording. Like I had actually two other deals that just never manifested into anything. I was signed to Relativity for a little bit. And then I had done a situation with Rawkus, but it was a group situation. And the group kind of dissolved. Right. And I actually had entered a workforce for the first time, like the private sector workforce of course. I did security on a dock for Estee Lauder for about six months or whatever, and just used that as like a rehabilitation period just to get my skills back together. You know what I'm saying, then with the Relativity situation to go through, I was kind of, you know, a little disappointed. You know, got down on myself, but I got to work and then I just eventually snapped out of it. And are you still tight with Tip and doing any musical stuff with him or what? Well, we did a record for his album with Andre 3000, and I think he's due to actually put out his record this summer I believe. Cool. That sounds good. And I know you've got, off of your album, you've got two videos now for it, right? Yeah, I got the video for "Callin' Me" and then we got the new video for the new single which is "Don't Forget 'Em," directed by Bernard Gourley, and the song is produced by Kanye West. I know that Kanye did some of the beats on this and you had a lot of different producers that you were working with. Who else did you get in there for the Day Job record? My man Younglord he did "Callin' Me". He did "Night, Night" and then Kareem Riggins did "Uncle Rahiem." Darin & Keith did "Pretty Little Sexy Mama." Koolaid did the "Job Song" and "Disperse." Keezo Kane did "Who Knew My Luck Would Change," and I actually co-produced a record with my guy Len 'Low Down' Woolfolk, which is called "Feel This Way" which features John Legend on the record, he's rapping and I wrote the whole record, it's dope. And have you thought about, in addition to your own stuff, doing more writing for other artists, like songwriting? Oh yeah. Definitely. Definitely. Definitely. Yeah. I wrote a hook for Memphis Bleek, his new record. And you know, I got a gang of other stuff that's coming or whatever. Cool. And are you like going to do a full national tour with this or what? Yeah, I'm trying to put something together for like July/August. Okay. I see. That sounds good. Now being that you're from New York and grew up there and represent New York, what is your feeling on the whole situation, with people kind of dismissing New York and saying, "Oh, the South is running things nowadays." What's your take on that? I mean, it really is business at the end of the day. You can't really be mad at the South. We watched the whole thing evolve. You know what I'm saying? And it's like, whoever puts out consistent music, everyone has to understand that entertainment is a consumer-based industry. You know what I'm saying? And you've got to feed the frenzy. And right now that's what's feeding the frenzy. You've got new records dropping every week from somebody. You know what I'm saying? And New York is, you know, they've got to play catch-up. You've got to get your weight up! I hear you. So, in terms of singles or albums or whatever, what are you personally feeling right now? Like what's on your play list? All the beats in my CD changer that I'm looking through for my next album. I mean I've been working like so much that I haven't really had time. There's a bunch of stuff that I want to hear. I heard some, Redman's new album is fresh, Rich Boy's album is fresh, I been listening to some of Kanye's new album, it's fresh. So do you, in terms of sort of having to put the career on hold for a little while and then coming back with this album and maybe not selling as many copies as you'd like, does it frustrate you or does it just give you more motivation and more fuel to the fire? It just drives me harder, because this is like, you know, this game is a game based on addition for me. You know what I'm saying like? Based off of me alone, you know what I'm saying, I was going from zero. Yeah. It wasn't no anticipated number that I shoulda did. So I got what I got and I keep it moving. At the end of the day, by the time I put the next record out, then I have to like, anticipation as Consequence the solo artist by himself. You know what I'm saying? So, it's a building process. I would definitely love for my pocket to have shot out and done like 300,000 the first week. But we'll get to that, you know what I'm saying? It doesn't—it doesn't make me feel like, "Oh, well, I didn't shoot straight out, so all is lost." It's just one of those things I've gotta build on.

And that's exactly what we're doing. We've got a gang of videos coming out. Like we got this DVD coming out. We've got this mixtape with Whoo Kid coming out. So, no, I always look at the glass half full as opposed to half empty. We just got "Don't Forget Em" added to HOT97. Nice. It's a tedious process. I hear you. You got to stay consistent. You see what I mean? Yeah. No doubt. Now you're also you're playing the Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival next month, right? Yeah. June 23rd. Are you psyched about that? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Definitely a great way to kick off the summer. I'm gonna be home. You know, Brooklyn and Queens are more or less like cousins. So we'll have a good time out there, and it's definitely a good feeling to be able to be home and do something for the hood and have all the people out partying. So, we gonna get it on. No doubt, man. I'm looking forward to that myself. So, you got any last words to say to all the people out there and that's going to be checking this out online? Yeah, well, definitely Don't Quit Your Day Job is in stores right now. Make sure you pick up a copy, quick fast, quick fast. (laughs) And you can hit me on the myspace, it's myspace.com/cons. Get me on my website, www.consmusic.com. "Don't Forget 'Em" my new single is out right now. Go to YouTube. If you want to see the video, you go to myspace page to see the video. It should be on TV real soon. And we got, like I said, the next album is You Win Some You Lose Some. We got the new mixtape coming out on Memorial Day weekend. The Cons Vol. 5, hosted by DJ Whoo Kid. And we've got the DVD. That sounds good. Well, good luck with all that stuff, man, and I'll try to catch up with you at the show in Brooklyn.