After coming out with a vengeance and then being almost cast away because of a lackluster debut album, Canibus is back. He has swallowed his pride and showed people that it wasn't his fault the first album left a bad taste in your mouth, but rather it was Wyclef for picking such boring production to go with such a fiery MC. Now with a new cast of beat-makers and the same potent, poisonous rhymes, Canibus is back to show the Hip-Hop world what he is really made of.

JC: How did you go about preparing for this new album as compared to the first one?

Canibus: This album it was done environmentally. I wasn't out in the field. I wasn't on tour. I was stationary. I was in New York and that's where I started and completed the album. So as far as like tracks and stuff like that, I got some real neck snappers on this album because I was able to locate producers and have them come out to the studio and bring there MP's, mini-disc's, CD's, DAT's, and pocket recorders. Whatever they did they tracks on, they were able to come through and let me hear it. So that's how I selected my tracks and DJ's and producers alike would just bring they shit though. So this one was definitely a different vibe with that. And then as far as guest appearances I was able to work with some of my favorites in the game. DJ Clue did the joint with me and Rakim rhymin' on there. I got the Horsemen on there, Killah Priest, Ras Kass, Kurupt, then Pharohe Monch. I got Beatnuts on there. Irv Gotti gave me some heat and TY FYFFE.

JC: You mentioned producers, is there a criteria you look for when selecting a producer or do you just have an open call for people to come through and play you beats?

Canibus: It was half and half. I would say for like three tracks I know that I wanted to work with the Beatnuts. I knew I wanted to work with TY FYFFE and I knew I wanted to work with Clue. The other producers pretty much are cats that came through the label and during the day time and they leave a DAT or they would come through and I would be there and they would play some shit and I would be like "yo, let me hear some more shit." And we would come up with something.

JC: With the other producers that you have found, are these people that you feel you will work with in the future?

Canibus: Yeah, very much so. I am trying to start this new album and another album in May.

JC: So you are already working on a third album?

Canibus: Yeah, I haven't started it yet but I plan to start it the first or second week of May.

JC: Now that you have found your own schedule and you are about to put the second album out, are we going to see albums drop more rapidly from you?

Canibus: Yeah, my label, Cash Money is signed to my label and they been pumping out albums like laundry, you know. So Universal is the type of label where they can't concentrate on several different projects at the same time. Def Jam is a label that can do an assortment of projects at the same time. I am basically like waiting in line to get a release date.

JC: You talked about the other people on the album and you mentioned the Horsemen, is that a project that will ever see the light of day, like an entire album or will it just be select songs on everybody's albums?

Canibus: At this point everybody is just doing Horsemen records on they album. As far as like seeing the light of day, I mean that's a question that is up to the people. That's up to the people and what the people want to hear. Because if there is no demand for it, then no label is going to sign it. If there is not enough demand for it where a label is going to sign it and be respectful to it, like when I say a label to sign it I mean I wouldn't want that project to be on Universal. Because I am in the Universal system and I already know what's like over here dealing with the label and me as a lyricist and how they kind of work with lyricists and lyrical artists. I kind of understand the label better, so I wouldn't want the Horsemen to be on Universal. It would have to be on a label that they understand the vibe and understand that the goal is not to sell a million albums but the goal is to get out there and create some sort of entity.

JC: So how did the Horsemen come together?

Canibus: Rhyme wise as far as lyrics are concerned, there is no boundaries. We all love each others rhymes man and I think that that's what counts and that's what would make a project with us so dope. That's why the record that I did with the rest of them nigga's is so bangin' man because we just want to get on a record and rip it to shreds. It ain't got nothing to do with anything else but rhymes. It's through respect because each one of us has gone through our learning experiences and each one of us have learned things from the industry that we didn't know in the beginning. Each one of us have been somehow linked to big companies, big names, popular names and still individually we haven't really obtained the respect that we deserve. I mean for a minute people was wondering if I was a Lost Boy but I was never a Lost Boy. After being linked with that I appear on several records, guest appearances, like The Firm, "4,3,2,1," various freestyles on mix-tapes and shit like that. I appeared on a lot of records. Then fucking with Clef, that whole "Gone 'Til November" shit and the records after that and then touring with him. So I have been affiliated with big names and big people and at the end of the day everything is what I make it, you know what I'm saying. You can't live off of anybody else's hype. You gotta hold it down yourself. People just love to associate either me or like the Horsemen, the rest of the people like to associate us with other things instead of just accepting "yo, man this nigga Canibus right here, I like his style. I think he get busy." It's hard for somebody to mention either my name without mentioning Clef's name in the same sentence, or mentioning L's (LL Cool J) name in the same sentence.

JC: Do you think those battles.....

Canibus: I never battled Clef and I never physically battled L (L Cool J) either, I just did my record. The public they take it upon themselves to just make decisions. There is nothing that I can do about that, to each his own. But everybody got to be specific about what they are saying. You gotta call a spade a spade. You can't just be callin' shit, you know what I'm saying. I was never on a stage physically with L (L Cool J) and me and him when back and forth. It was records, so it was like child's play. Anybody can write a rhyme and do a record and people going to make the shit rotate. They are going to put it into heavy rotation because everybody loves drama.

JC: Now speaking of LL, have you squashed that with? Have you talked to him personally?

Canibus: I haven't talked to him. I don't really have no reason to talk to him. Like, there is nothing to squash, man, because I didn't start the shit, you know what I'm saying. All I did was I spoke my piece and that's how I look at it.

JC: Has he tried to talk to you or contact you?

Canibus: Naw, I haven't spoken to him. I feel like if I really wanted to contact him of course I could and vice versa. If he really wanted to contact of course he could. That kind of speaks for itself.

JC: How did the falling out come about with Wyclef now that he has come out with his record just recently?

Canibus: I haven't heard the record. Yo, I spoke my piece. Like a lot of people ask me questions, they ask me a million different questions about a million different things directly. What I said on "2000 B.C." is I said, "If you are mad at the last album I apologize for it/ Yo I can't call it/ Muthafuckin' Wyclef spawned it." I said that because that's the issue. That's what niggas was running up to me in the street and saying. I be in New York, I'm working on my album, I'm in Times Square, whatever, going to get some pizza from Sbarro's or something like that and somebody will be like "oh shit, Canibus, what's up man. Yo I love your shit. Yo I love your rhymes and all that. Yo man 'Clef fucked your shit up man. Yo I'm telling you man, you got that shit, just stop fucking with the nigga." People will say this to me all over the damn place, like everywhere that I went. So when I put that there I said it because most of it's true. I feel like if the production was different on my album then people would have accepted the album differently. Nobody everybody complains about the rhymes. Nobody ever complains about the things that I decide to do on records. I can only put that responsibility in his hands, you know what I'm saying. That part of the album, which was the production.

JC: Was it just that line in that song that made him have a bad taste with you or was there events leading up to that?

Canibus: I never had on problems with the nigga, like no problems. I don't think anybody ever heard anything about him saying anything about me before that record came out, "2000 B.C." But you know niggas got ego's and that's one thing that I gotta say. Everybody that I seem to clash with or anybody that has a problem with me or I have a problem with them, it's always an ego situation with them. It's never like some real shit. It's never like somebody keeping it 100% real and stepping up to the plate and like accepting the truth. It's always somebody letting they ego get ahead of them. That's mainly like the problem that I always have. If I ever have a problem, it's always somebody getting carried away with their ego. I do one line and I didn't say anything about his family. Mind you I know the nigga. I've been to the niggas crib before, I know his family. I didn't diss the nigga. I know how to diss somebody. If I do one line, I keep it real. He's a multi-millionaire and he sold 20 million albums with the Fugees and he's doing his thing and I'm not trying to take nothing away from him but I'm saying as far as my album was concerned, my first album, I didn't get the support. And everything that 'Clef had said that I was going to get, it didn't happen that way. But I was just basically calling a spade a spade. He decides to make a record and I have yet to hear this record. But it's bugged out that he would do a whole record. That's an ego thing.

JC: Do you feel there was too much hype around the LL thing?

Canibus: Hell yeah. There was a lot of hype around that. It was definitely like blow out of proportion. I can't lie, the record that I did was to the point and it was disgusting and it was hard headed. I knew it shook him up and it was supposed to. It definitely wasn't supposed cause some kind of fucking movement. The was that the shit went down you would think that I kicked the fucking tectonic plate or something. It wasn't supposed to that deep.

JC: With the Wyclef thing are you just going to let that go at the one line or are you going to write a song back to him?

Canibus: No way in the world will I respond to that bullshit. That shit is bullshit. I look at it like this, the bottom line is at the end of the day, no matter what I say, and that's all it is, just talking shit on records. Because we don't have no drama. Ain't nobody gonna run up on me or none of that shit. Nobody is on it like that. And I ain't on it like running up on nobody else either. No matter what I say at the end of the day, he is still who he is. He's still got his plaques on his wall. I got a gold plaque on my wall form my last album too. And everybody got to live they life.

JC: Right, that's exactly the way I felt when I heard the first album is that the lyrics were there and the beats just didn't keep up and this was after hearing all of those dope guest spots you had on songs before your album.

Canibus: What I'm trying to say is put yourself in my shoes, like what you just said to me. I've put myself in your shoes, like from your perspective, a million times. Now put yourself in my shoes now, now think about it like this. All the other shit that I ever appeared on was all blazing. That's why I call this new album 2000 B.C. It's 2000 for the date and B.C. stands for before Can-I- Bus. Before the first album. So everything that I had done prior to the first album was crazy. Then when the shit was mastered and it came out, we was on the tour bus and he played the album for niggas. Niggas came on the bus and listened to the album and whether I was there or not, did nobody say "Naw man that shit don't sound right." Did nobody say that. You think if somebody would have said that to me, like pulled me to the side and said that in my ear, I would have come out with that shit. Somebody that I either respected or somebody that I at least looked at as my peer. Nobody. The Blaze (Magazine) shit, that's when all the bad press started. It was like an avalanche. I wasn't even in the fucking studio. So these are the things that's bugged out. I look at that, like all that shit that niggas talking about, what 'Clef did, pull a gun and all that. Like I'm not going to sit here and shit on a nigga and say that he did or he didn't. But the bottom line is this, why would you do that with my project. You didn't do that with your project. Why didn't you create that type of drama and all that type of madness with your shit.

JC: Yeah the new album is definitely a step up, with just the first song it was what I wanted to hear.

Canibus: That means a lot and I do this for y'all. I don't sit here and take all this time out to write these rhymes and be such a perfectionist for myself, you know what I'm saying. I want the people the feel like there is somebody out there that gives a fuck about this music. And somebody out there that is going to hold it down.

JC: So with this new album are you relying on yourself now to pick the beats and make sure everything is tight or do you still have someone there to help you decide and make sure it's right?

Canibus: Naw it's a combination. On this album I've definitely attempted to get an ear for tracks. Those neck snappers. And I'm learning, you know what I'm saying. I'm not totally there yet.

JC: Now with you being a big proponent of the Internet, how do you feel about companies like Napster, who trade MP3's online? Do you feel that helps your cause or do you feel it hurts your cause?

Canibus: I think that's absolutely dope. It's like bootlegging. I'm not mad at bootlegging. I feel as though if somebody loves your product to the point where or they are curious enough about your product enough to the point where they are going to do something illegal to get it, that's a good thing. Because for me I give a fuck about the music more than the money, you know what I'm saying. So I give a fuck about people out there when I walk down the street I want somebody to say "Oh shit that's Canibus." And when they run up to me, if they walk up to me and give me a pound and they say "Yo I think you are one of the nicest niggas out right now." I want them to mean it when they say it. I don't look at them like "Yeah muthafucka, just go buy my album." I'm not going to file a lawsuit over money or about my music being out there. I love it when people shake up the fucking music industry.

JC: Now earlier you mentioned the guest stars on the album and you have a new guy by the name of the Journalist. Is that somebody you just met or is it one of your friends from back in the day?

Canibus: Naw he's from Philly. I met him in '99. He came out to the studio because I was doing this group record and I had a couple of more MC's on there like from Queens and Brooklyn and Jersey, assorted boroughs and shit. And the Journalist, he held it down out of everybody there, like he really impressed me.

JC: So how are you planning for the future? Do you have like a set amount of albums that you want to drop or is it just as many as you can put out?

Canibus: I don't really know. I don't really have anything tentative planned right now because this game is so disgusting. I actually love rhyming man, I always did. I love looking at the looks on peoples faces when they hear like certain shit and just the way that they respond. I always love that and it's like a high for me. But the rules in this game make me not like it. Sometimes I don't even want to get up off the bench and get on the court or go out on the field because I know like the Ref is crooked. The Ref is crooked and these other niggas out here ain't playing by the rules. The opposite team ain't' got no sportsmanship, like they just got big heads and ego's. So I can't really make a decision right now as to what I'm going to be doing in the future.

JC: When you sit down and write your rhymes is there a method or a ritual you go through?

Canibus: It's very metallurgy. That's what it is to me.

JC: Do you sit back and impress yourself? Have you ever written something that you couldn't believe you thought of?

Canibus: I used to. I kind of get that more if somebody comes to me and says "Damn man, that shit you said." Then I understand. It's kind of like I already going at the speed I'm at right now. You are not going to realize how fast you are going until you either hit something that's standing still or you pass something that is standing still. You don't really realize how fast you are going in a car until you try and look down at the ground and try to see one of those white lines. When it gets blurry then you know, oh shit I'm really moving. So that's kind of like now when I'm writing, I set my own standards and I writer based off of what I feel coming to me. But I never really realize how dope it is until somebody says "Yo, that shit right there."

JC: If you had everybody in Hip-Hop listening to you, what's the one thing you would want to tell them?

Canibus: Just remember this is all we got man. Try and keep it tighter. Because right now it is real spread out. Niggas is real mad at each other. There is a lot of bullshit going on. The one thing that I could say is keep the rhymes ill. If you are producer keeps the beats ill. Don't ever get to the point where you get lazy and you write this rhyme and you know that that word is too simple but you want to just use it anyway. Keep the heat on. That's the one thing I would say.