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The Last Emperor
I remember the first time I heard Last Emperor. It was on ‘Lyricists Lounge Volume 1’ and he featured on a track called ‘C.I.A.’ with legends Zach de la Rocha and KRS1. This was the standout track on what was to become a classic album, the lyrics are literally revolutionary. Following this there were rumours circulating the Hip-Hop community concerning the Last Emperors moves from label to label, and several tracks emerging from Internet download programmes. This included the incredible ‘Secret Wars’ in which he pit his favourite MCs against his favourite comic book heroes, doing uncanny impressions of the rappers mid-bout! Then nothing, not a peep. After being signed to the mighty Aftermath before Eminem’s success and despite being signed to the once mighty Rawkus records before Rawkus’ decline Last Emperor found himself without a record deal. Then, in keeping with his mysterious nature, he emerges from the shadows signed to Raptivism with a brand new album, ‘Music, Magic, Myth’. I spoke to Last Emperor about the trials and tribulations of trying to release a record.
It all started with Aftermath, it was quite an achievement for a conscious MC from
Last Emperor was on Aftermath for about two or three years. Dre signed a slew of artists but didn’t have the time that he had hoped to dedicate to each of them. Even in parting there was never any real conflict between The Last Emperor and Dr Dre. Dre let him know the score, his album would be delayed, and gave him an option of leave or stay. Last Emp decided to leave. So what is the fate of the Dr Dre produced Last Emperor tracks?
“Interscope own a good portion of those recordings at Aftermath, Interscope being the parent company of Aftermath but I did have a few songs that I carried.” A line from Last Emperors new album almost playfully requests Dre throw him a couple of songs for his next album. But in reality things are more complicated than that. “It’s pretty much the administration at that particular label than anything, just a lot of paperwork involved, perhaps someday I could try to financially be in position to get the rights to certain things, but they do own a portion.
“After a year Rawkus reached out to me. Rawkus had experience of putting out artists such as Mos Def, Talib Kweli and Pharoah Monch. Once I got to Rawkus I was to record a certain portion of material, maybe five or six songs, and have the album be released in six months time. I met my obligations, I kept them to the tee.” Unfortunately Rawkus didn’t keep their word.
“I wasn’t being consulted as to how to get it out to the public in the proper fashion and then there was a lot of conflict with the Rawkus administration on image, and my appearance, and things of that nature.”
So they basically wanted to control you?
“Right, right, and it really hurt me because I myself viewed Rawkus as a place where artists were given obviously a certain amount of artistic freedom starting with their individual expression.” A lot of people viewed Rawkus this way. Last Emperor does not seem angry at the way he was treated, simply philosophical and reflective. “If you study the American economy during that period of time from about 1998 to 99 and even now, there was a lot of turmoil on an economics level which hurt a lot companies and corporations here.” It is so self-evident that Hip-Hop is considered a business and no longer an art that most people do not even bother to address the situation anymore, not when it is so much easier to exploit the situation. Not Last Emperor. Rawkus - being a relatively small record label, but clearly not as independent as we were led to believe - had to adapt to stay afloat. “Corporations start to downsize, lay people off or try to change to a more profitable format.”
But is it true that he was actually asked to dumb his lyrics down?! “I really didn’t have that experience at Interscope. Ironically it was at Rawkus that I had those creative discrepancies, and conflicts. With Interscope it was pretty much in terms of the production that I chose. There seemed to be a lot of clashes. Different producers I wanted to use as opposed to the producers they wanted me to use. More actual music became the issue. Whereas with Rawkus that’s when I was told that sometimes my approach to writing was a little too complex and that the rhymes were a little bit over people’s heads and that I should try to simplify them.”
‘The Legend of Big Foot.’ I had heard that name being bandied around as the possible title of Last Emperors album for a couple of years prior to the release of ‘Music, Magic, Myth’. The rumour had spread so far that a record shop employee once told me that they had heard it and it was amazing. Was this the name of the album that would have come out on Rawkus?
“First of all there was never an album of that title.” Oh. “But there was a song called ‘The Dozens’ that I recorded sometime in 1997. There’s a line in the song that I speculate the possibility of my debut album being entitled ‘The Legend of Bigfoot’. Somehow or another that song made it’s way on to the internet along with some other songs. Someone had compiled a lot of the material from the Aftermath era of my career and pretty much delivered it to the Internet as a complete body of work.”
Then when various tracks started appearing on the Internet the line was misconstrued which lead to speculation that these tracks were from the fabled ‘The Legend of Big Foot’ album. They weren’t, the album never existed. It’s a typical Hip-Hop Chinese Whispers tale where myth becomes fact. However in a remarkable art imitating life situation Last Emperor is considering using the title for a future project as there has been so much talk about it. “I think it’s something that I may actually touch upon in some of my future works, so it’s really forced the myth to become a fact in more ways than one!”
‘C.I.A.’came out about the same
time that he signed to Aftermath. So how did the ‘C.I.A.’ track come
about? “In 1997 a gentleman at Collage Projects, they are the company
behind the whole Lyricist Lounge movement, they made me aware of the
fact that they were interested in putting out a song dealing with a
political topic for the album. They came to me and asked if I was
interested in just being involved in the song in general. I said, ‘of
course’, I’ve had some experience of studying political science and
international relations at
We literally talked about
everything under the sun and we felt that the best thing to touch on
and really zero in on was the recent finding, I believe in 1996,
concerning some of the United States Governments involvement in
supplying the inner cities of
But that’s more than enough about the past, although these legends must be written before they fade, new legends are still being created. In the present we have a new album ‘Music, Magic, Myth’, and the people involved with this project, The Beatminerz, Prince Paul, and Too Poetic to name a few, are all world famous for creating that true ‘boom-bap’ Hip-hop. How did Last Emperor come across such a diverse group of talented individuals who were all willing to help him create his album?
“Prince Paul, who pretty much is my mentor and gave me a clear understanding of how to put together an album. Because of his previous work in dealing with groups like Stetsasonic, and De La Soul, The Gravediggaz, The Handsome boy Modelling school, he was one of the first producers I wanted to reach out to when I initially got signed way back in 1997. Because I knew that someone of his calibre and his experience would know how to deal with myself. I consider myself a conceptual artist, an artist who likes to a lot of story telling, but is still very much aware of the fact that powerful lyrics are the definitely foundation of any good talented MC and make for the best albums.”
“The Beatminerz, that was another group of producers that I really wanted to reach out to from dealing with Black Moon, Smif n Wessun (Cocoa Brovaz), OGC, and Heltah Skeltah. Their production style was just something that I really always thought would compliment some of the things that I had to say on my foirst album. The first time that I worked with them was in 1998 but we’ve maintained a relationship ever since and now they’ve pretty much done the bulk of the work for the album.”
Last Emperor is aware of how fortunate he has been with his collaborations.
“I’ve been fortunate that through Prince Paul I’ve been able to work with the Rza from Wu-tang, although that particular song didn’t make this album. Just to have that experience was just tremendous.”
“Cocoa Brovaz aka Smif n Wessun, they’re on the album too, Poetic, formerly Too Poetic of Gravediggaz is on the song ‘One Life’. That really strikes a chord with a lot of people because he’s a talented individual who contributed a lot to Hip- hop since the late 80s and on top of that because it’s one of his final recordings before he succumbed to a bout with cancer. That song chronicles the things that he went through in terms of dealing with the music industry in general and specifically his bout with a debilitating disease. The young, talented singer who is also on the song, Esthero who has a large following of her own. She’s a talented singer out of Toronto Cananda. Ayatollah, who has actually worked with Mos Def and Talib Kweli, and Pharoah Monch and artists like that, who have contributed a lot to the artform recently. Even when I didn’t have a deal, or didn’t have any money to even record, people like the Beatminerz were like, ‘look man we feel like you’re a very talented dude and we want to continue to work with you even if you don’t have the resources.’”
“I can’t forget Armand Van Helden who happens to be a big, big, name in the realm of House music and a lot of people are quite excited when they hear about his involvement in the project as well. He flipped it man, he showed his versatility. I think that people who are familiar with him they’ll be pleased because it definitely has his signature but at the same time it’s very Hip-hop, and B-boy at the same time. So I’ve been really fortunate that I’ve had an opportunity to work with a wide range of experienced people.”
So how did the hook up with new label Raptivism happen?
“They put out a project in 1998 or 1999 called the No More Prisons Project.” They just wanted to put a body of work together relating to the prison industrial system here, which people coming from urban communities have to deal with a lot. Particularly if they come from an impoverished community the penalties for even very, very, minor misdemeanours and crimes are given stiffer sentences merely because of the colour of a persons skin, or their religious affiliation or just the fact that their poor. Again they caught wind of the fact that I had a certain experience with Political Science. They paired me with a singer called Vinia Mojica who has worked with Mos Def and Del La Soul.
So when I found myself in 2002 without a deal but yet with a lot of music in my hand they said ‘look man , wed really like to facilitate putting this album out, you’re familiar with us, you know our position towards putting out quality music so we’ll leave the option open to you.’”
“I was in
So what kept Last Emperor going and inspired him not to give up, sell out, or go mad he was going through all these trials and tribulations with the industry? “On the surface obviously a lot people look at it like, ‘wow, this guys album should have been out years ago, and perhaps he should be reaping some of the benefits that some of his contemporaries are’ but what’s been the driving force is the fact that I’ve been able to work with some of the people I’ve grown up being influenced by. How many artists can say that they’ve worked with KRS 1? One of the greatest, respected B-boys and Hip-Hoppers of all time. Who can say they’ve had an opportuniy to really sit down with Kool Herc, one of the founders of Hip-hop period, viewed by many people as the person who invented the term Hip-Hop itself. Who can say they’ve interacted with these gentlemen? Really had them help guide their career? Who can say they’ve really had Prince Paul’s involvement in delivering an accurate depiction of what Hip-Hop is all about. From these gentlemen to again the Beatminerz and all these people, to the places I’ve been able to go.
Growing up I was in high school and I remember having to study a great deal of Shakespeare and thinking ‘when will any knowledge of Shakespeare ever benefit my life?’ Fifteen years later I had the opportunity to travel to Denmark and I’m sailing on a ferry from Denmark up to some to Norway and I sail past Hamlet’s castle and everyone on tour is engaged in a dialogue and it felt good to know that I knew the whole story, what it involved and what it embodied. Things like that continue to force me to not give up on this even when I’m not reaping some of the benefits that my contemporaries are. I’m awarded in a way that sometimes the general public doesn’t see but I see on a daily basis. Of course who wouldn’t want to have the entire world have the experience of listening to their music and being influenced by it, but I think there are certain reward in life that just really can’t be measured in those terms and I’m constantly being granted those things.”
There are some inspirational words. If you want to hear more inspirational words I suggest you purchase his album ‘Music, Magic, Myth’ as soon as humanly possible.
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