Prince Ea, aka Mr. Vibe Magazine, is a hip-hop artist and activist from St. Louis, Missouri. Prince Ea has been influenced by other artists such as: Immortal Technique, Canibus, and Rakim. Prince Ea has released several songs on YouTube and released his first mix-tape in 2008 titled, The Adolescence, which was made available for download. Prince Ea also started the movement "Make Smart Cool", which is a movement promoting intelligence and education, and integrating it with hip-hop. Artists such as: Immortal Technique, Black Thought, and Sha Stimulia have joined this movement. Prince Ea is an artist with great skill, passion, and drive. His lyrics show his intellect, and he backs them up with his ability to ride beats, and speaks his heart and passion into every bar, verse, and track. This is an exclusive interview with musiklives.blogspot.com! The date of this interview is May 13, 2011. Thank you Prince Ea for your time...Enjoy!
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Question 1.) If you compare your earlier tracks such as: "The Red Pill", "Einstein Freestyle","Bars from Sumer", and "Political Science", one can notice the difference in style of these tracks when compared to your newer songs. Would you say you have transformed as an artist?
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Question 1.) If you compare your earlier tracks such as: "The Red Pill", "Einstein Freestyle","Bars from Sumer", and "Political Science", one can notice the difference in style of these tracks when compared to your newer songs. Would you say you have transformed as an artist?
Prince Ea- Yeah, there has definitely been a transformation. There has been a progression, even though a minority of people think I have regressed. I have tripled my fan base, I have become more identifiable to a lot of people, and it also represents the growth of me, as a human-being. Music is a reflection of what you are going through. At the time of my earlier tracks I was young, and into politics, conspiracies and science. Now, I am still into those subjects, but now I tend to save those topics for when the time is right. Basically, when you hear my full body of work on my album, you will hear I have expanded. When you hear other songs like "Different Girl" and a song that is about to drop called, "Love of Me", you are still going to get the same emotion, and you are still going to get me, but it's a more grown up me. In some of my earlier works, a lot of things were sensational. A lot of things were not backed up by evidence, they were speculative. I still express my opinions on things, but I try not to do it in a way that misleads people, and makes people listen to me just because it is so outlandish or so far fetched from the truth. I still want to expose the truth in every bar and every verse, but now I tend to watch my mouth before I say something, so I don't mislead people. It is also strategy. If you are in the music industry, you have to have a strategy/plan. I want to gain as many fans as I can. I don't want to isolate people or marginalize any group of people. It is my intention to go mainstream. How people define mainstream is their opinion. I want to be popular, I want my message to get out there, and make smart cool to the masses. So after I do that and people hear my voice, they will be more open to listen to me when I start talking about things that I touched upon in my earlier songs.
Question 2.) How was working with Canibus on Paranoid Chillin?
Prince Ea- As far as working with Canibus, he is a legend. He is one of the biggest influences on me , so it was amazing to work with a guy and gain respect from someone who you grew up listening to everyday. I was so speechless. When the collaboration took place, I was really humbled.
Question 3.) What are your thoughts and feelings about the death of Osama Bin Laden? Some other underground rappers, such as Immortal Technique, have released their thoughts on the situation. How do you feel about this? And do you think it is important that more Americans understand the whole picture of the situation? Meaning the United States history in the middle east, and their history with Al-Qaeda and Bin Laden.
Prince Ea-I was saddened when people began to celebrate a mans death.Without understanding the geopolitical relevance of what happened, and to celebrate like others did on 9/11, is primitive. I have not had a chance to read Immortal Technique's piece, but I have heard a lot of good things about it. As far as the conspiracies about it, like that Bin Laden died in 2001 from kidney failure, and unmarked graves, I have done a lot of research about that. I just don't know, it's hard to trust the government. Discussing the after math of it, dumping the body in the ocean, and not releasing the photos because they were too gruesome, I can understand that. You don't want to create any type of anarchy or any chaos after you release the pictures. Now going on to Al-Qaeda, if Osama was captured or killed there will be a backlash. People don't understand the concept of blow back. As far as the reasons for 9/11, we don't understand the full picture, the full spectrum. We only see what they give us. I believe there is more hidden than was revealed. I'm still watching, trying to stay up on all mainstream and alternative information as I can, and hopefully come up with an opinion. It's hard to when you are fed propaganda from both sides.
Question 3.) What are your thoughts on the American Media? Do you think they construe information, sensationalize, and "sugar coat" things?
Prince Ea-Yeah man, of course. That's what the media does. They gotta get the ratings, he who controls the media, controls the masses. They have to keep the attention span of the people, so they sensationalize. We don't really have any unbiased news outlets in this country. The closet thing to it is maybe BBC News, but that's outside the country. But, wherever you turn on MSNBC, Fox-News, or if you get left wing propaganda, it's tough to believe anything. This country has a history of being lied to, in every situation. There are so many legitimate conspiracies, documented conspiracies, not only the ones they have not come out and said are conspiracies, but ones they have come out and said they are. It's frustrating.
Question 4.) What is the future for Prince Ea? A new album? Any new tracks? Videos? Tours?
Prince Ea-Yeah man, big things. I have to get the album done, I have been talking to a few labels, but I still want to keep it with the people. If the situation came up to do that, I would definitely consider it. I am actually just coming from a meeting with the Anthropology department at my school. I received many outstanding awards. It was humbling. I want to continue to popularize education, and keep pushing the movement. I have been blessed with many opportunities, so it is my duty to give back. I got a new album coming out, and a few collaborations with a few artists we discussed in this conversation. I've got something really incredible for the people coming out. I have also been talking to Immortal Technique about possibly doing an album or a song. I am trying to get him and other artists, such as Lowkey from the UK on the new album too. I'm just trying to popularize that notion of intelligence, and making it go mainstream. A lot of my fans think the mainstream is bad, but that's where every artist wants to go. If they can keep it organic, keep it truthful, without compromising who they are, their integrity and their message, and embrace it, then there's nothing to hate on.
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