You're calling the new Lench Mob album Raw Footage. Sounds like a Hollywood sex tape.
I just wanted to do hip-hop for the brain. I'm not really worried about the club and the things that most people are worrying about right now. I've always prided myself on making the streets understand the politics of the day and, hopefully, making the politicians understand the streets a little bit.

On "Take a Nation,” you declare yourself "the only rapper who wanna fistfight the president.” Our money is on you.
Of course. The hook is, "It takes a nation of niggas to hold us back”—a statement in itself. Forces outside of hip-hop are starting to dictate what's hot and what's not. I wanted a record to talk about it: "That's bullshit, we need to take it back.” We need to dictate what's hot—not Viacom. I did Lench Mob to be able to do records how I wanted to do them, when I wanted to do them, and to promote them how I want to without nobody having nothing to say.

Those other bozos would've thrown T-Pain on the "Gangster Rap Made Me Do It” remix. Why'd you choose Nas and Scarface instead?
It gives me credibility all over the country. Getting a godfather like Scarface on there [gave it Southern credibility], and Nas—who is like the mirror image of what I'm doing on the East Coast—brings the knowledge to the streets. It was like sitting down to a big steak dinner in a fine-ass restaurant: Organic, with no bullshit.

"Why Me,” surprisingly, also seems organic. Who would've ever thought that Cube and Musiq Soulchild would collaborate?
That's from the perspective of the victim who's just walking down the street and gets busted on. Some people deserve what's coming to them, but this is for the ones that don't. You got to be a straight coward to kill somebody who doesn't even know they're in a gunfight. This record is [the victims'] voices talking back to the ones that did it and basically saying, "Why me? What the fuck did I do to you?”

It's not the typical rapper-singer effort, but really, what's a few thousand radio spins to a legend?
With this record, we have limited radio support, but the people want it. That's how it should be. I love when a record is getting 3,000 spins and don't sell shit. The record is bullshit, and that's how it should be. It's these people who are spinning the shit 3,000 times who need a foot up their ass.

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Raw Footage drops on August 18th

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