It’s hard not to be noticed when you drop a video like “Y’all Should All Get Lynched”, but NYOIL is pleasantly humble and effervescently funny when he meets the little Lyrical Lounge Interview Queen that could, Angelica LeMinh, as she travels across international borders and domestic waters to chat with him on his side of the Staten Island ferry.    

ALM: Is NYOIL an acronym?

NYOIL: It used to stand for “New York’s Original International Lover” but I had to retire that because it became too ridiculous (laughs). Now it’s NY Oil, oil is black gold, we’ve been at war for oil, the youth has been dying for oil. I think the youth is black gold, and that’s what I’m going to war for, the youth, this hip hop.

ALM: So did Sadam deserve to just get lynched?

NYOIL: No, absolutely not. Why are we even there? Why were we there the first time? Weapons of mass destruction? They ain’t got those. Osama Bin Laden? They ain’t hiding him. For our freedom? We all saw the pictures, he wasn’t no threat, he was hidin’ in the caves, beard all scraggly, messed up. He was turned out way before the war even started, man. When I was a shorty reading Popular Science, they already had an intravenous microchip. Now, twenty years later, you’re gonna tell me that they can’t find one guy and have to hang the other one? Come on, man.

ALM: Are you still hiding your face?

NYOIL: Yeah, I’m still laying low. I want to do this from obscurity, I want it to be natural, I want people to listen to my music and then seek out my face. I think the problem with Mos Def and Talib is that people have all kinds of expectations on their personalities and get that confused with their music.

ALM: Do you think there is the pressure to jump on the neo-conscious branding wagon?

NYOIL: I think that people should brand themselves, because we are products, that’s the nature of our bizness, but it doesn’t mean that we don’t have to be puppets. Folks always blaming the record labels, but how about some accountability? Ultimately, you make the choice to pimp yourself, to sell us all out. Don’t forget that. But we should be making money on endorsements, because it allows us to do our music, right? Because folks aren’t exactly jumping to buy the cds. See? That’s another way we have to be responsible to each other. Support (and that means put your wallet out, not just your hands up) the artists who are doing something good or stop complaining.

“homeboy you’re a corporate whore, whatcha selling out your people for….I ain’t risking my life waiting for a tiger to change his stripes, I’d rather be a black panther stalking my prey at night”.

ALM: But what about being paid to endorse clothing for a company that is renowned for using sweatshop labor?

NYOIL: See, now that’s where you have to weigh your options. I had a similar situation, when I was trying to get the funds together for my album release party and I had to make a decision whether or not to take a donation from a malt liquor company, which represents everything that I am against. But see, it’s hard when you’re a socially minded entrepreneur because inevitably some contradictions will arise, and people have to put their money where their mouth is. Fortunately, it all worked out, because at the last minute, I ended up getting the money from some private donors, and it proved that these small victories are possible.

ALM: What do you think of the Boondocks?

NYOIL: I think that’s another example of something good that was co-opted. All the “n*gga this” and “n*gga that” and you have to realize that it’s not coming across how it was meant to. Dave Chappelle quit because he was being violated by white people coming up to him and his family screaming, “I’m Rick James, Bitch”, but what he doesn’t realize is that the rest of us are violated by that every day as well, but we have to roll with it because we can’t just disappear, try to make a pilgrimage to Mecca or whatever, the rest of us have to work and we are affected by his decisions. I had to think long and hard about “Lynched” because I know it could be taken the wrong way, but I decided that the overall message was more important and that people would get it. 

“..grab this n*gga Flava Flav from this coon ass shit they got him doing on VH-1″    

ALM: Flava Flav?

NYOIL: Damn, kid. What the fuck. (long pause). What can we even say about him? Fuck 911, Flava Flav is a joke. I mean, ok, I understand you gotta pay your bills, the Surreal Life was good, even that shit with Brigette Nielson was alright, you know, showing culture clash and what not, but now? With all them young girls? When are you going to draw the line, man? Fame is a cruel addiction, and it just shows how powerful the white man’s cameras are, because every culture will play themselves for the white man’s camera. The white man carries himself like he’s God on camera, they fuck you and they fuck you, I mean, Tom Cruise as the Last Samurai? Tom Cruise?! Seriously though, and some of my best friends are white. (laughs all around).

“what’s crackin’ my cracker?!”

ALM: Superhead got a shoutout in “Lynched”, is there a point where you think that a Queen can be redeemed, or is your only comment “y’all can suck my dick”?  

“Nina Simone broke the way so you could act like this?” NYOIL: I was just mad because she didn’t give me no head (laughs). No, I mean, if you’re violating, you’re part of the problem and fuck you then, if you’re trying to straighten out, it’s all love. Just because you went to prison for armed robbery, doesn’t mean that I’ma judge you forever, to err is human, to forgive is divine, but it still don’t mean that I’ma invite you over to the crib, you know? You can’t turn shit pie into custard cake. And it’s not a matter of being a sexually liberated woman, I love that. I love porn too… ALM: So you actually saw that part in the song…. 

NYOIL: Ya, you think I made that up?! I was just tripped out by the mechanics of it (”white boy and a black girl on a dirty bed, had her moaning “hail Hitler” with his foot on her head, fucked her in the ass until his face turned red, then he stopped, and nutted on her face instead”) she musta been a shorter girl…but I even show my daughter porn (she’s 15) because it’s a battle when they’re trying to dress in them clothes, I show her the porn to tell her that that’s how them boys really think of her, I can tell her all I want, but I’m her dad, she’ll just think I’m talking.  

“somebody called you a bitch and you believed that. somebody called you a ho, and you believed it. but when i told you you was a queen, you couldn’t conceive it, couldn’t receive it, wasn’t trying to see it…”

ALM: Were all the women in the “Queen” video all just fans? I saw the callout for pictures on Myspace.

NYOIL: They were all my lovers and baby mamas (laughs). No, they all came from the queens in my Myspace family. They came with such beauty-full stories and the fact that I was able to respect that story, that’s art and the response is still pouring in, the women are so proud.

ALM: Elizabeth Mendez Barry wrote an article for VIBE last year about domestic violence in hip-hop relationships, and the collected silence around that, care to break it?

NYOIL: Nobody is above an ass whooping. I love women, but they can get on my nerves. I know how that’s going to come across, but let me qualify it by saying that I think that everyone deserves the same warnings and chances that if they continue to continue down a certain path knowing that it will get them nowhere fast, then we all have to be responsible for what we got coming to us. But beating your woman, man? In front of your seeds? If there is such a problem that cannot be worked out without hitting, then it’s time you leave, but if you want to stay, then you make it work another way. A woman that loves you so much that she allows you into her person, lets your dick in her mouth, that’s heavy, man, don’t disrespect that or take it for granted. If you are abusing her, why are you with her? I know that there are a lot of doods who take an asswhooping in the street and come home and give it to they woman, that’s fucked up, man. 

And as far as the hip hop silence around that, well, it’s extended under the whole umbrella of “snitching” which we need to start doing about all kinds of shit that’s violating us all, beating women, killing our brothers, selling drugs, we have to be accountable all around. Turning a blind eye like it’s some kind of “justice”? For “street credibility?”, fuck that, fuck your slogans and your code, if that’s what you’re about.

ALM: Oprah has never in her career backed a presidential candidate, until now. What do you think of that?

NYOIL: Oh, you’re talking about Obama? Cocksuck Fox News for real, for drilling the association of that cat’s name with Osama Bin Laden’s, assholes. But seriously, I did a radio show not too long ago with this college professor and even blew him away with my deduction that that dood is the Manchurian Candidate  for real, he just came out of nowhere and I’m supposed to identify with him because he’s black? I’m not that interested in him, I don’t know what he’s about, but I will probably vote, show some level of solidarity of what he says that he stands for. I know the rest of them are bullshittin’, Hillary? Stop bullshittin’, woman.

ALM: Why is this the Warmup album?

NYOIL: Because the next is going to be incredible, I just gotta make sure I can make it, I can fund it. Seriously, it’s going to be the best album ever, the album that changes hip hop, and not with bullshit cameos either, I’ma be the Prince of hip hop, show up with my ass cheeks hanging out of purple pants and shit. I come from battle raps and Otis Redding  and that’s the background that’s going to make waves. Also, I don’t smoke anymore, and this album is me warming up, getting used to flowing without being blazed. Because when I used to smoke, man, I could freestyle lucid until I wasn’t high anymore, but I quit it because I didn’t actually like the smoking, the effect on my body, I just liked the vibe around it, the method, that’s why the man calls himself that…

“went from bankrupt to banked up, running on E to fill the tank up…if you wanna do the things i’ve done, you better shine until they set you, son.”

ALM: The album and videos that you’ve managed to come up with on a peanut sized budget are pretty remarkable, what are you going to do when you have more?  

NYOIL: I’ma change the world, girl. (smiles). I see hip hop as an older person, for the kids, the beginning and end of hip hop is the song on the radio. I want different experiences for the art, see it in different venues, see it in a play-I mean I don’t need to see no opera, but I don’t want to just see Madea’s Family Reunion either. Hip hop doesn’t have to be corny, and I’ma make some bizness changes, aggressively pursue success, and leave a handbook of how to do it for the youth. I’m already influencing a crapload of new doods to tear it up, that’s a whole crop of emcees who are emerging to actually say something to combat those saying nothing. It’s a position of responsibility though, I have to be careful of what I say and how I say it, it’s like Malcolm X was being watched because of his influence, and like that, I have to be cautious. But when my community knows what I’m all about and supports me, when I roll by a church and a reverend is buying my record, ripping off the plastic and bumping it right away, I know I have the power to make people obsolete.

ALM: And speaking of reverends….well, you know what I’m going to ask you.  

NYOIL: what?

ALM: Come on…

NYOIL: Oh, you’re talking about Al Sharpton and his lil’ lackey Tamika Mallory? Shoot, girl, I thought you were going to ask me about Reverend Run or something…you know, I actually already forgot that, because it’s so senseless. We’re on the same side, but we’re just seeing it from a different paradigm. I have a lot of respect for Al Sharpton because he stood up for us and put in work, but I think he’s done all that he can do, because he’s not really doing his diligence right now in this situation. Marching on Washington on a Tuesday with 30 people brandishing bars of soap? What about organizing a march into a record store to support hip hop artists that are saying something, because we’re out there? And Ms. Mallory wrote me a letter, wow, because after seven years of internet message boards, I’m nice with the written word, and it’s clear from her response that she has no idea who I am or what I wrote, so I don’t even need to dignify that further with any more responses.

ALM: What’s your favorite thing about each borough?

NYOIL: Queens-well, it’s where the Queens stay, seriously, some fine women thereBronx-that’s the birthplace of hip hop! Brooklyn-that’s just a family vibe, you make friends everywhere, with a chicken sandwich and a blunt, that’s the whole “method” there, personifiedManhattan-that’s NYC, it’s a collection of everything, everybody-Harlem, the Village, Chelsea, 42nd Street…art, a museum on every damn thing, I mean, there’s a museum on paint. Not painters, but paint.Staten Island-it’s a half hour away, but look at it here, it’s beautiful, it’s calm.

ALM: Final message?

NYOIL: Don’t inflate your importance then propagate that to the masses. There’s really nothing else that needs to be said, but bigup to NYOIL and his publicist Alyse Feldman (On the Fly) for showing a girl around, from walking tours through Manhattan, to video spinning at M1-5 for DJ Scratch’s bday partay, hobknobbing with WHCR’s (90.3) C-Truth and VIBE’s Big Ced, and bringing me through the offices of Hip Hop Weekly (rap’s answer to US weekly). Peace, New York City, thanks for being proactive about proving that hip hop is most certainly alive and well, bitches. *If you don’t buy this album based on these pull quotes alone, you need to ask yourself if you even love hip hop at all.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 23rd, 2007 at 7:39 pm and is filed under Angelica LeMinh, Culture, Interview, The Lyrical Lounge (Hip-Hop). You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.