Commercial Break

KING Y'all did a three-in-one video for "Don't Feel Right,” "Here I Come” and "In the Music.” Guess Jay's budget didn't allow for separate looks, huh? Funny . . . those Ricky Ross flyers are everywhere.

BLACK THOUGHT The album is about strategy, survival and the world we live in, so based on how the songs gelled together and looking at the whole record as a greater work, those three songs represent the range of mood in the record. They're three drastically different soundscapes.

"Brave New World” is only one minute and 49 seconds. And the album clocks in at 47 minutes overall. Is this hip-hop for the Ritalin generation?

Basically. The first song, "False Media,” speaks on that: "How many children are on Ritalin?” This is the attention-deficit nation. Everything is so easily accessible. The palate of the consumer is changing. It's not the early '90s, when people would listen to 70 or 80 minutes worth of music.

On "Baby,” you switch from spitter to singer. What happened, ?uestlove couldn't pull D'Angelo away from the dinner table?



I've sung before. I'm singing the chorus on "Silent Treatment.” There's always some joint on the album

that requires me to do something other than spit.

Your J Dilla tribute featured one of his beats from Donuts…

"Can't Stop This” was done before Donuts. We had a few beats from Dilla for this album. It didn't become a Dilla tribute until after Feb. 10th [the day he passed away]. We added some more music, and all the voices that you hear are taken from the CD that was given out at his funeral.

Continue reading this story in the October ‘06 issue of KING (#36)