Thief Sicario: Interview With Latinabeatz/Raptalk.net"Education of a Felon" is a title fitting for Thief Sicario who is an upcoming emcee under Realizm Records. In this Interview Thief goes into great detail of how his time behind bars was put to good use. Already having the street smarts, Thief used the time in educating his mind incorporating his beliefs in a mix with his love for Hip Hop. Enjoy!-LatinaBeatz
Question: Lets start with the album title of your album "Education of a Felon" on Realizm Records. Is this title and album concept a soundtrack of your life ?
Thief: "Education of a Felon" was named after the autobiography of the late author and LA native Edward Bunker. I remember being in the hole reading his novels and that shit really hit me in the heart. Little Boy Blue, Dog Eat Dog... In my opinion are literary classics... I was really inspired by his life story also... This is a man who spent most of his life in institutions and prisons since he was a kid... Out of those experiences he wrote some of the realest heart felt novels about this life that I've ever read... I could really relate with his story because we both shared similar experiences... He was able to rise from that and go on to writing from experience and becoming a best selling author with numerous movie adaptations of his books... Remember Mr. Blue from Reservoir Dogs?... That's him... Quentin Tarantino had said his shit was the best first person crime novels he had ever read... When I started my first solo record I was actually gonna name my first album something different but when I heard he died I had to pay homage to one of my greatest inspirations...
Question: I've always said True Hip Hop is education, A way creative way of telling a story of your surroundings. Your writing alone is impeccable and impressive, You don't fit the stereo-typical "Felon." Do you think your times behind bars shaped your writing and message in your music?
Thief: To be real some of the greatest literary art of all time was made in prison... That's a place where you only have yourself... Sitting in solitary for months and years at a time will either break you or make you unbreakable... You get a lot of time to think about every minute detail of your life and everything you've seen... Some of the smartest most talented people I've ever met were in prison... I remember when I seen Di Nero say on Bronx Tale "the saddest thing in the world is wasted talent".. That shit hit me in the soul 'cause I remember so many people would hit me up in there telling me how dope I was, asking when I get out... When I would tell them I was doing ten years with no early release you seen their faces just drop... I used to be real bitter in there with all the bullshit I seen and went through in this life... I hated the pigs and being locked up even made it worse... I used to regret all that time I did but now I know this was my path... I wouldn't be who I am today if it weren't for that shit... Hating the cops naturally lead to hating the government and like I said with all the raw talent in there I was around a lot of creative people... See up in there they got some of the illest 'cause they do that shit from their heart... When you're doing ten or twenty or life and you write rhymes or whatever you're not doing that to get paid.. The mainstream is not your focus... That songs you write are from your soul 'cause odds are that song will never be recorded, released or even heard outside them walls... Most these rappers out here, especially now, ain't no threat... Those vatos in there those are there are some of sickest lyricists I've ever heard dead or alive... They should be doing this interview and not me...
Question: Most emcee's say writing is an outlet which evolves into their music. How did you know this is what you wanted to do?
Thief: I remember the first rhyme I wrote was back in the late 80s and people told me I should write... I always had good reading skills even as a kid I had memorized my story books from that taught myself to read before I went to school... I remember when hip hop was still new back then and as a kid it really inspired me to write but I used to catch a lot of shit back then.. Hip Hop wasn't what it is today. Back then most people called it "rap crap" that was a passing trend that was only for blacks, or other stereotypes, and misinformation. Most older people didn't get it or said it wasn't real music... I used to get discouraged because back then you pretty much had to be signed or have some money to record your shit... I used to loop beats on the tape deck stop and record. layer that shit and spit over that shit. Horrible sound quality most of the time... We didn't have protools, myspace, or none of that so it was easy to fall into some other shit... I got into drugs, tagging, and gangs getting arrested, in and out of foster homes, group homes, juvies, and placements... I still loved hip hop but I was lost... I didn't write another rhyme till I was 17 in Juvenile Hall in Riverside... I wrote strong in there and in this placement they had me in until I got out. I went back to the streets and didn't really write again until I was in the county about to go do ten years. I decided then and there that no matter what I was gonna write that whole time... So from there I just kept writing from experience and writing rhymes every single day. Vatos knew me we'd be on the yard kickin' it with all the homies and I'd pull out a pocketful of illegible rhymes and scribble a bar or two here and there all day... When I got more into politics and history back in the late 90s it made my rhymes that much sicker... So to be real this became the only thing I'm good at. By my record I'm really not a successful criminal to have been caught so many times and I have no real skills or education so this is all I got...
Question: So lets get into the album. What singles have been released?
Thief: Off the album I know radio has played "Amerika," "Se Acabo" "Veteranz Day", "Numbers," "We Ain't Playin,'" and "Adopted By The Streets." I got a few mixtape tracks that have been making their rounds too... "Amerika's" really the first single we pumped as a lable
Question: Any videos to accompany?
Thief: For the first single "Amerika" we did a DIY documentary style video to give people a better feel for the imagery and symbolizm behind the lyrics... That was put together by myself and the big homie Krazy Race... We recorded a video for "Se Acabo" featuring Krazy Race and Mic Mc that's about to drop.. It was directed by Krazy Race and edited by I-Suppose who also did the Krazy Race/Global City video "The Last Hour"... It's got a similar feel to that video but in black and white... I seen the raw footage and the shit came out sick... We got cameos by on there with the big homie Chino Xl and a few surprises... The most visible Sick Side Army heads also came out.. It was a real good time we were hella deep down under the Sixth Street bridge in East Los all day into the night drinking and smoking... Some taggers thought we were a neighborhood and ran from us. haha.. Good times... We woke up some bums with our shit but before it was over we had them feeling it too... By the end of the night we were in a freestyle cypher on the street corner. You gotta love that sick hop shit. haha..
Question: Tell me about the production and concepts
Thief: Most the production was done by my homie Trafek from the Felony Flats area up there in Portland... I'm from the Inland Empire but being that I had done some time up there I got some strong ties and history with Portland homies... He did the beats for "Amerika," "Se Acabo," and about half the album or more.... We also coproduced a few tracks on there together... My homie Elespecialista in Spain from Verbal System produced a few stand out tracks on there "Adopted By The Streets" and "Numbers" just to mention a few.
Question: You are signed under Realizm Records, A label created by another talented emcee KrazyRace. How did that come about?
Thief: I was being looked at by a few more established lables with distribution and all that when I met Krazy Race.. It was a trip how it came about 'cause I knew who he was but we were formerly introduced by the homie One from OG Sickflicks in London... From there we started chopping it up and he approached me about getting on his compilation in the works... I had already recorded about fifty or so songs for an album and a mixtape so as he heard more it came to point where he approached about what I was trying to do with my shit... My response was that I would roll with a lable like Realizm or Sick Symphonies because it's what I believe in but other than that I would just rather put it out myself... At that point we became business partners and now I consider him to be like an older brother. Homie don't know it but I feel like he saved my life...
Question: What do you think of Hip Hop today in contrast to 15 even 10 years ago?
Thief: You know it's a trip because I was talking to Chino about this same shit last night.. When I went to prison in 1996 I spent about a year and a half in the hole and so for that whole time I didn't hear any hip hop music at all... And I was in and out the hole my whole time in there. When I was on the mainline and I had CDs or tapes they were the classics... Psycho Realm, Wu Tang, Mobb Deep, Chino Xl, Canibus, Nas... That's all I had and it was the old shit. I missed a lot so in a lot of ways I feel like a relic from a lost era... A lot of homies clown and say I'm stuck in 1996 but I take that as a compliment because that was a classic time... This new millennium shit is lame... At least the mainstream... But on the underground some of the greatest hip hop ever made is being made right now. Look at Muggs Vs Jacken and Immortal Technique... Hip hop ain't dead we're just waking up out a coma... Hip hop has defied a death diagnosis since it's birth... This shit's like the man that was given a week to live who's still alive decades later... This shit's like Castro of music genres hated by many but still not dead. haha.
Question: What do you contribute to Hip Hop?
Thief: Originality and artistic integrity in a time when you don't see that in music.
Question: Put peeps on game why they should cop your album?
Thief: Amerika. Numbers. Just those two songs should be in every true hip hop head's playlist like a ghost in your ipod...
Question: From speaking to you and peeping some of your history/bio I notice a strong drive for revolution, be it government issues to ancestry. What do you think of the Government today?
Thief: I don't trust the government or any of the candidates past, present, and future... It's like they say if something sounds too good it probably is. It's all bullshit they give us capitalism and the choice between the lesser of two evils and call that democracy... By definition, democracy is more synonymous with socialism than with capitalism...
Question: How do you stand out from "Every other emcee"
Thief: I'll let the game speak for itself that one... If you're sick your reputation will precede you...
Question: What albums/projects have you been featured on?
Thief: Mic Mc -On Campus (Realizm Rekords) 909 Wayz To Die (Insane Empire/Teen Angels), and a few others yet to be released...
Question: Is another album in the works? what about mixtapes?
Thief: Oh yeah it's gonna be a double album... It's already written and the production is done I just gotta get back in the studio with Trafek.. expect that by the end of the year... It will be called 'Honor Among Thieves'...
Question: Besides making music do you have other ambitions or current projects in the works?
Thief: At this point no... I'm just focused on my music right now...
Question: What advice would you give kids that are being raised in the dangerous environment you were?
Thief: This too shall pass... Don't follow my footsteps. I'm just a man with a lot of issues who is still dealing with shit. Learn from our mistakes and triumphs and do better than us.
Question: Who would you love to collab with?
Thief: Jim Morrison, Sick Jacken, Big Duke, Nas, Immortal Technique, Kool G Rap, RZA, DJ Muggs, GZA, The Moody Blues. Too many to name. haha...
Question: KrazyRace is a hustler. Business man. would you consider in the future branching out and starting your independent label?
Thief: At this point no.but who knows I'm focused on Realizm right now...
Question: Name a few things about you that would surprise people.
Thief: I recorded an unreleased album in prison with Brown Recluse and Cazm from OG Sickflicks. I wrote about half the songs on my album years before I recorded them... Amerika were both written five or six years ago but people didn't get it back then... I recorded it almost two years ago and just dropped it. I feel like people can't grasp my shit when I first write it so I sit on it for a while because if I can't reach the people what's the point?... Artists are supposed to be ahead of their time... A lot of the best pieces of art known to history we're not appreciated until decades even centuries later... They've found extremely rare and priceless Mayan hieroglyphic books in a library trash can... That book is where the 2012 prophecies we're first discovered...
To listen to Thiefs tracks and for more info visit his myspace page http://www.myspace.com/thiefsicario
Thief Sicario
"Page After Page"
Saint Desmas
http://www.zshare.net/audio/692166269e6c7751/
Albums Available @
http://www.cdbaby.com/thiefsicario
