Interview with Blueprint

Recorded at the Atmosphere concert in DNA, Aarhus, June 2003 by Ann Noyd


Can you please introduce yourself?
My name is Blueprint, I'm from Columbus, Ohio, I do beats and I rhyme I'm part of Rhymesayers.

How old are you?
I'm 28.

How long have you been producing/ rapping?
1996/97 and I put out my first record in 1999. Me and RJD2 of the MHz have formed Soul Position, me on the rhymes and him on the beats. We've got like 8 joints recorded so far. The album is coming September I think. Peep the snippets.

What kind of topics do you rap about?
I talk about normal everyday stuff. I don't try to be too cryptic, I'm not too out there. Everything I write is meant to be said first and foremost and spoken in a way that the common person can understand. I'm very straight forward.

Do you have any kind of message that you´re trying to get out?
…….Beer, women, partying, life, love... (laughs)

What inspires you?
Right now I'm mostly inspired by stuff that goes on in my life, like events, bad things that are happening to me. As far as other artists it's the same as everyone else, the ones you listened to growing up like KRS-ONE, Public Enemy etc. from the Golden Era.

How did you meet RJD2?
We´re both from Columbus, Ohio so he was a part of the scene there, coming up, so was I. But we didn't really know each other the first couple of years. He was in a crew called Mhz, and my crew which is Weightless (Weightless Recordings) or Greenhouse Effect & Illogic we were like the biggest crews on that scene and got introduced to each other. We started talking, I went over to his house, we did two or three songs and two or three songs turned into an album, we had an EP out and now we're just waiting for the album to come out, it should come out in September.

What makes you a special rapper?
'cause I don't care about rap (laughs)... so I think that make me do or say things because I don't really care that much. The ego and the power, I don't feel that. I didn't get into this like most others who maybe listened to rap and went “I wanna be a rapper!”. I was in basketball, I wanted to play college ball and I did, and then I got into computers and got a degree in computer science. I was a computer programmer for 5 years, a project leader, then I resigned.

Why did you make that decision?
I wasn't happy working in an office environment in corporate America. What it takes to be successful in corporate America doesn't nessecarily fit what I think I'm good at. I don't judge success on routine, procedure or predictability, I judge success on creativity, my relationships with others, ability to improvise and come up with creative, fun ways to get past obstacles, that's not what's embraced by corporate America.
You can be creative as a computerprogrammer when you're coding, but realistically it's not for the creative person. The setup is more towards achieving specific goals through specific sets of steps - you really can't sway too much, you really can't improvise, and then it's a field that really doesn't lend itself to people being social, people who sit in front of computers the whole day don't really care about anyone.
I was successful but I don't think I was really cut out for what was wanted, but more for something creative, and it doesn't even have to be rap.

So you might as well have become a painter or?
Exactly! I could have been a painter or a talkshow host, anything.

You were never a nerd?
No never, I just liked it because it was something cool at the time because it got me away from basketball. I got hurt and I didn't like it, I didn't wanna play anymore, I fell out of love with it and then I was in the second grade in college and just turned to computers. I was never a nerd, I was always like the cool kid at school who picked on the nerds, cracked jokes, part of the in-crowd. I loved high-school, nerds hate school because they always get ridiculed, I loved school, because it was so social, hanging out with friends, talking to teachers.

But leaving programming and computers must have been like leaving the security of a steady income and the ability to pay ones bills?
It was, I resigned in august 2002 and it's still not been a whole year but I look at what I gained in terms of personal freedom, security in myself and living a life that's not depending on someone else giving me a performance review or based on how much money I make a particular year. That freedom is worth more than the security that I lost. Financially I actually have more money now than I did working with computers.

And yet the culture you're a part of (hip hop) glorifies materialistic values?
I don’t think I necessarily fit in, although at times I feel I could be a guy who wrote a materialistic rhyme. I never worried about money while I worked at the company, I had a very good income and was well-respected, I gave all that up. You reach a point where you have to decide if you want to be more involved and serious about your job and being a part of corporate America, or be more dedicated to your art, that's the point I came to.
At first I was gonna go on a tour which was for a month, and I was gonna go without telling anybody at work why, just be gone a month and then back at the desk. Nobody at the office knew that I was doing this on the side. But then it was decided that the length of the tour was going to be three month, and the chance of exposure as an artist was going to be bigger and better. I felt that if I didn't go on this tour I probably shouldn't take my rap very seriously. And it was either go on this tour and take rap seriously, take a chance or just go back to work and say “forget rap”. I chose rap.

What if rap turned out to be one long road of poverty for you, would you still commit to it then?
Well, it depends on how you define success. To me right now all the things I've wanted out of it, I've gotten already, so I could say I'm successful right now, to me. My goals weren't that high to begin with, I just wanted to be able to pay my bills to the same extend that I was used to, and to know my rent could be paid that year, and I've gotten all that. I wanted to travel, go to places I've never been, I'm doing that now. I wanted to be able to wake up in the morning and not do anything. I wanted to be able to say “hey today I'm gonna lay on my couch for ten hours straight, go to bed, wake up and do it again! Those are the decisions I get to make, and to me that defines success. Freedom, and that was something I never had. I was bound to a company. Now I'm working towards goals that are my own.
Even if a year from now, I'm broke and have to go back to work it would have been worth it. I'll never have any regrets. I will have lived something that millions of people dream about. And for me to have lived it for a year, 5 years or ten years, is a huge thing.

You must still have goals, what are they?
Well, for me they're more long-term now. My goals are more for artistic development, for example my goal for the next year is to have my solo record come out. That's a goal, and also that it comes out on the biggest medium possible, you know with the biggest financial backing that I could get, distribution with a lot of money behind it. I think that's gonna happen in September. And then all I have to do is basically go out and not suck (laughs).

But you're not gonna be able to call your album Blueprint? Isn't it annoying that everybody thinks of a Jay-Z album when they hear or see your name?
Well, yeah I guess so.

What are the next career moves?
I'm building up my foundation as a good live-performer on these tours, I think it is very important to be able to give a good show, I learned that a lot from Atmosphere and touring. I could put out a record tomorrow with my name on it, but I'd rather build up and have the upper hand when my stuff comes out and people are gonna be “whoa where did he come from?”. Be a better artist built on that foundation. Most rappers put out a solo album, and start waiting for the buzz, and waiting to go on tour, but I'm doing that right now.

If you HAD to choose between being an MC or a producer what would you choose?
I can see myself as an MC for the next three to five years, but longterm I'd like to be a producer, and I don't think that has anything to do with hip hop or rap at all, eventually I'd like to be doing instrumental stuff. I'd still do hip-hop production, but I think long-term I could do more, 5 years from now I won't be rhyming at all, I'll be punching keys and doing beats. And I don't think I'm going to have anything to say for that long (laughs).

Aren't you gonna develop as an artist?
I hope so, but I'm paranoid about it. You know, there's a lot of MC's you used to look up to who don't make good records anymore.
Like who?
Like LL Cool J, he had so much to say, but now every song is about women, he can't rhyme about anything but women. LL won't say anything that inspires you to be a better person or to look at a section of life and identify with that. If I reach a point where I'm not talking about anything any more, then it's not worth rhyming anymore. If I get to that point I'm not gonna rhyme, I'm just gonna do beats.

Which big artist(s) would you like to work with?
Maybe OutKast or DJ Premier, Gangstarr obviously, Ghostface Killah, Dr. Dre would be nice.