Shabaam Shadeeq has kept a low profile over the past few years while serving a bid in prison. Back on the road for a European tour, the Brooklyn, New York rapper explains what it was like behind bars and how he kept himself busy.
“My state of mind when I was doing time was like, I just wanted to write, read a lot of books, gain my knowledge, get my body right and come home,” he told Media Gasface. “Do this, what I’m doing right now. This is a dream.”
He reflected on his humble beginnings and how Rawkus Records wasn’t checking for him at first. “Rawkus was my introduction to the game. I put out two records on my own. I had a friend at Rawkus. At first, they was like ‘Nah, it’s good, but we here, we’ll get with you next time,’” he explained. “Then I put my own thing out and people on the radio started playing it, so after that, it was like, ‘Aight, I’ll mess with you.’”
He also recalled recording “5 Star General” back in 1998 with DJ Spinna, AL, Kwest, Skam and then unknown Eminem. “’5 Star General,’ everybody respected each other’s pen game. We all went to Spinna’s house and we recorded. Eminem was a regular dude, a regular baseball hat… Later, he blew up. He ate everybody on the track. Hew as the best on the track, almost. I can admit. It was my track, I can admit it. When he dropped his verse, everybody was like, the fuck outta here!”
Shabaam says he knew that Em would become a star. “I knew he probably would’ve been a star, because there wasn’t too many white boys that were rhyming that vicious,” he continued. “Yeah, it’s more easy to market him, but at the same time, he’s not regular. He can spit. So being white just adds a whole lot more to it. If he couldn’t rap, he’d be gone like Vanilla Ice. He’d be gone. But he is fuckin’ nice.”
Agreed!
I got that song off Stretch and Bobbito. I used to go home put the tape, come beck an hour later and flip it.
*in
You better run cuz I’m probably the only one
crazy enough to shoot your ass with a knife
and stab you with a gun
Chek out mah debut single “Runaway†(produced by me). swag
Im mo talented den yo fav rappa. lmao
http://www.myspace.com/soicygangor/music
SHABAAM IS REAL STREET DUDE WHO REALLY SPITS ITS GOOD TO HEAR HIM TELL HIS STORY WE’RE ALL WAITIN FOR THAT NEW HEAT ! THOU
5 Star Generals is fucking sick. Em fucking killed it.
Shabaam is a legend, and dispite of jail, he has been able to stay relevant by keeping music and hi quality videos out in the market…salute him.
Shabaam sahdeeq and the closers been droping alot of heat latley, his “Off parole” album was dope.. also that mixtape he dropped with The closers.
Dope….Shabaam preserves the 90s feel of hiphop without sounding out of date…..
SDub holdin it down!
HES REAL!!YES HE IS!!!
MUCH LUV 2 SHABAAM. ALWAYZ A REAL DUDE N SPITS ILLY.. GOOD TO SEE HIM DOING HIS THING AGAIN. JEDI
Bam is fire water most you lames rap about things yall neva seen to me hes way better than Em Ems hot but DSC is the shizznit