Wise Intelligent – Intelligently Speaking

16 years ago view-show 662,112

 By: Hip Hop Journalist

      For many, taking a year break in Hip-Hop can be seen as sacrilege. Making a come back after ten years may be something of an urban myth. But when you are Wise Intelligent, there is an audience waiting with bated breath.

      This PRT front man has never faltered in his message. He has maintained the same lyrical path that he started out on and now as he rears his head after a decade of just ‘living life,’ one can’t begin to imagine just what the ‘Talented Timothy Taylor’ is going to provide.

      He might have dodged CNN in a recent request for an interview in regards to the billboards posted in Chicago but he didn’t dodge us here at HHC when we asked him just where he was for the last ten years.

 

HHC: Taking a ten year hiatus nowadays can be considered temporary retirement at least. How valuable was this time to you?

WISE: Well, I never stopped recording! I may have taken a hiatus from the mainstream or commercial Hip Hop scene but I never stopped doing Hip Hop! For nearly a decade I’ve been living my life. I have a family. I have children. My life is not just about a rhyme.

HHC: Did you ever think that you might not go ahead and make the second album?

WISE: NO, I never doubted that I would put it out, as far as making it; it was recorded for a few years before it was released. Like I said, I never stopped doing Hip Hop.

HHC: Was there any pressure from external forces to make the album?

WISE: Not at all! This is the advantage of being independent. INTELLIGENT MUZIK is just that. This particular brand has a mission statement that states its goal of creating infrastructure to support socially relative Hip Hop for the preservation of the culture. So, if there was any pressure it would be from losing valuable time with my seeds in the recording process.

HHC: How important was making this album to you personally, as a fan of Hip-Hop?

WISE: It was very important. I felt and still feel that Hip Hop as well as the Black Community from whence I hail is suffering from a lack of knowledge. This lack of knowledge is evident in the fact that everyone seems to believe that it is profitable to dumb-down. This album is my statement to that idea. I’m saying "It’s No Longer Smart to be Dumb!" The current anti-intellectual, anti-theoretical and a-historical environment in which we are embedded has doubled the homicide rate, HIV/AIDS rate, teenage-pregnancy, etc. We dumbed-down the lyrics and doubled the destructive behavior. As a fan I felt Hip Hop needed a healthy dose of socially/politically relative dialogue and or commentary! It needed some balance and this is my contribution to that balance.

HHC: Did you face any major issues making this project or was it just a case of ‘the time had come’ and it all just flowed?

WISE: The only real issue was how Hip Hop has become so expensive to make and market. One would think that with all the new technology the cost to record and market an album would be substantially lower than say 1990-1996. What I mean is once an artist from my hood has spent his paper recording his record he is expected to pay radio heads, indie promoters, street teams, viral marketers, etc. The business is now marketing and not music!

HHC: What can your fans expect to get from this project?

WISE: Hope! They say that "faith is the substance of things hoped for…" So for all those fans that had faith that Hip Hop would once again speak to the struggles of the people that created it, this album is the crowning of that faith! It is a perfect merger between style and substance. It is the bridge between the mainstream and the underground. It is as "hood" as it is "scholarly." It’s Wise Intelligent doing the impossible!

HHC: If there was one thing that you could change in Hip-Hop right now, what would it be?

WISE: I would change who it is that controls the mediums through which the culture is propagated.

HHC: You declined an interview with CNN in regards to the Chicago billboards; can you break down why you opted to do that?

WISE: This speaks to the answer I gave to the previous question. We (the Black Community) do not control CNN and CNN like most media in the western world has only served the purpose of further exacerbating the problems in the Black Community and therefore Hip Hop. I just believe that CNN does not offer a solution oriented platform but is very conflict oriented. CNN and other media in the west have never worked in the best interest of the Black or Hip Hop community. I did not want to go on National television and let CNN have the Black St. Sabina Church in Chicago in a battle with the Black Wise Intelligent on National television when we are brothers in the same struggle. I was not sure if the church sees America‘s media for what it is, as I do. So, I called the church and gave them the heads up, explaining to them that I did not think we could find a solution to this issue with CNN providing the platform; and that, we should rather meet at their church or in my hood to discuss our problems.

HHC: When you saw the segment you were asked to be a part of, did you feel Hip-Hop was represented?

WISE: I still haven’t seen it. But, I’m sure Hip Hop was not represented, and neither was the Black Community!

HHC: You are a deep man with a serious understanding of what goes on in communities, can you pinpoint where you believe changes need to be made?

WISE: On a "grand ole scale" it will take a redistribution of the world’s wealth. When we consider that some 10% of the world’s population control 90% of the earths wealth and resources, the problems and solutions become obvious. Look at Africa, the riches continent on earth (in history and resources) constantly portrayed as the poorest place on earth so that greedy mother-fuckers from Europe, Arabia and the rest can kill off her population and make their countries fat from her exploitation. If we focus on change at the local community level, we need to focus on education based infrastructure. If we the black community fails to gain control of the education, economics and politics of our communities we will forever make our place at the bottom of humanity. Yes, we have black mayors, black teachers, black superintendents as well as black businessmen, but, the economics are controlled primarily by aliens to our community. It’s no different from Hip Hop!

HHC: Another album after this one?

WISE: It’s coming on the heels of The Talented Timothy Taylor. It will be titled "WISE INTELLIGENT IZ…The Unconquerable Djezuz Djonez" you can get some updates and sneak previews soon at www.intelligentmuzik.com . You can also stay up to date on TOUR info as well as the INTELLIGENTNEWZ.NET, PEACE….

Comments

  1. It’s good to see one of the Poor Righteous Teachers remaining strong in their belief and continuing the struggle to make what they feel Hip Hop is. I seen Poor Righteous Teachers in my hometown of Columbia, Mo in early 2000 and I can say it was one of the best shows that I have seen in this decade. I remeber when Hip Hop was all around more competitive because it was no pushed by a main medium like now. To be honest Busta has been the one performer that I have seen live that consistently brings the heat at shows. As far as the Wise Inteligent, I have read a few different blogs that have been on Davey d’s website and he does keep hope alive with the words he provides. OnE!

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