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“You really don't wanna know much about me being that the more you know about me the more vomit will be launched from your pig mouth...” (Diabolic, http://www.myspace.com/diabolicfoulplay)
If you’re anything like me, that disclaimer has only served to make you yearn for more…. Being so highly insatiable, I went to fulfil my desire (no, not like Marilyn Chambers!) to find out about all things Diabolic. Now I’ve had my fix of topics ranging from his new album, to ripping off grannies and battling for head, the cravings have luckily subsided. Read on or Diabolic will “kick you in the nuts like [his] name was Wayne Rooney”.
Easy Diabolic, can you just quickly introduce yourself to our readers please?
I’m Diabolic. I represent Foul Play / Viper Records. I got an album dropping in October called “Liar and a Thief” featuring a whole gang of people: Kool G Rap, Smooth Da Hustler, R.A. The Rugged Man, Rockness Monster, Immortal Technique, Poison Pen, Nino Bless, and yeah, that’s pretty much it.
Yeah, me too…
That went great man, the English fans were fucking dope. You know, they were crazy! They really give you a great response and show a lot of love.
Yeah yeah, Tech bought me and Akir out during his set towards the end, and you know, he had us all freestyling and stuff and it was just at that point I got open and I really stared feeling it and just figured the people would want to hear about Rooney…
That went great. That’s the underground you know. That’s where I’m from. I really had a good time down there and they showed a lot of love. I bought out a couple of my people, Stylah being one of them… he did his thing. Yeah, it went well.
I think it’s real important… wherever you go, especially out here. You’ve got a real up and coming scene out here. Speakers Corner is a great place for people to be able to go and display their skill and what message they have to offer and show their knowledge on whether it’s the Illuminati, Hip Hop or whatever they’re speaking on. I really think that it’s a great place for up and coming MC’s as well as known MC’s, where they can all come together and be put on the same level, which really when it boils down to it, we’re all on the same level and we’re all trying to go to the same place you know?
Yeah, it is actually, it’s going to be on the album. I linked up with Sivey through Myst, who’s my UK representative out here… actually, my European guy. He works with a lot of producers: DJ Snips, Sivey, Chemo. And I heard the Sivey beat and I was just on it immediately. It’s a banger. Everybody hears it and they’re just pissed off that I got it you know? It makes me laugh hahaha.
That was the “Foul Play Mixtape”. It was something I’d originally put together just to sling at shows, make a little extra bread. But people were really feeling it. I’m pretty much distributing it myself, just trying to put it out there as far as I can go with it. I recommend that if you can’t afford to buy it, or cant find it, go download it, tell your friends about it. I don’t care if I get paid or not, it’s just really great promotion for me, you know what I’m saying?
This shop in Brixton is going to be carrying it and Deal Real off Carnaby [Street] will also have it.
I was like 13, 14 years old when I started writing. I started off as just your typical bomber writing on anything I could, whether it was with a spray can or a pilot marker. And I mean, I’d do scratch tags with quarters on train windows and stuff. It didn’t really matter, anything we could write on and get our name on and get some fame on we would do. I was more of an artist though. I was good at art as a kid. I used to do a lot of comic book type of stuff, and you know I got more into doing burners. That was really my forte. I can’t really say I do it as much these days as I’ve gotten older. You know the time; it just isn’t there as much. But every now and then you’ll catch me around doing a burner.
Yeah, a couple of times. But in New York it’s a little different. I never got arrested for it. What they’d do is, a couple of times I had a brand new pair of sneakers on, the cop took my spray paints and sprayed my sneakers up and ruined my sneakers and laughed at me! Sent me on my way and took my paint. You know, they sprayed my shirt, they’d smack you around a little bit. It was all good though, better than going to jail!
I love it. I love to see it. I love seeing that deejaying is so big, ya know, the DMC’s and things like that. It’s a worldwide thing. And graff… I’ve seen some of the best writers in the world come out of Europe. I mean as well as the US too. And its great to see because it’s an art form to me. I look at the skill and I see the beauty in it. It’s a great thing to me. Its great to see that there’s breakers that you’ll find from the UK, from Germany, from France, from the US, from all over. It transcends across the world and it gives people some way to express them selves.
I mean, I did both. But when I was young, when I was 13 or 14 years old graffiti was my life man. Everyday we were going out writing. We’d spend the entire summer just on the train tracks, just trying to get up. And you know, I rhymed too. You know, rhyming back then, girls thought it was cool. So you’d go out and battle and you’d look cool, and maybe you’d get a blowjob. You know what I’m saying hahahaha? So it always made things interesting. But as I got older, I got more into making music. Battling and stuff like that, it really just kind of took me over.
I did a lot of battles. That was the most prize money. I’ll tell you that, that was the most prize money!
That was 5 G’s! Yeah, it was a good day haha. It was a nice day! But I did my thing in a lot of battles, that you know, when it came down to it, there was more skill and it was more important to me that I won those. Battling was good for what it was for. It got my name out on an underground level and it made kids recognise who I was and made them willing to check out my stuff. That’s what I would recommend to artists coming up. If you want to make music, don’t pigeonhole yourself as a battle rapper. ‘Cause they’re just going to assume that you can’t make music. Once they know who you are from battling, go and get your music out there so then they know that you can make music.
I’ve gotta give Tech a lot of credit for his hard work. I was on Volume 1 with the hidden track, and I mean, I spat the verse and the kids really liked the verse to this day! And Tech getting his stuff out as far as he did, you know it really helped me out. It really gave me a lot of leverage in the game that I might not have had otherwise. So it really saved me a lot of work on my own. And then his Volume 2 came out and I was on that too so kids recognised the name. And then with the battle stuff and then I did a national TV thing.
Yeah, I did that. And just everything coming together really helped me out so people could recognise that I’m not just some battle rapper, I make music, ya know, I talk about real shit.
The Next Episode was a Show Time / Interscope production. There was five cities: New York, Philly, Detroit, Atlanta and LA and they took two artists from each city and kind of followed them around to display their life in whatever way and had them battle at the end of the show. And then the winner of each city went to LA for the final. What happened was I had a battle with some girl in the New York thing and I mean, it was pretty obvious that I shredded her but I ended up “losing”. But I was the only one on that show that caught any kind of buzz off of the show, which helped me out. It worked out for me. I thought at first I was a little pissed, I was like “man, I got jerked” but then people started checking the internet and putting me onto things and I realised “oh shit, I’m the one that got the buzz out of this”.
Yeah, they contacted him ‘cause Volume 2 was out for a little while and they asked if he was interested. Ya know, he had his album out and his own situation going and he wasn’t interested in doing it but then he recommended me. I was doing music and stuff, and I was doing a lot of street stuff on my own that had nothing to do with music and I really didn’t know what I was doing with Hip Hop so I figured “why not? Go do some Hollywood stuff real quick, it might be fun”, and it was. It worked out to my advantage.
I heard the same rumours everybody else did, I just don’t ask. You know why I don’t ask? ‘Cause I know Tech and he just wouldn’t sign to G-Unit!
Hahahahahaha, the worst thing I’ve ever done? I mean, I can’t really get into details, but there was some duck tape involved, a couple burners and a trunk ya know hahah?
Nah nah nah hahaha, we’ve joked about that. I won’t fuck with my fans though. I wont fuck with people who want my music, they deserve my music if they’re going to throw me ten bucks for a CD, they deserve what they get.
I just want people to check my album man, “Liar and a Thief”. It’s coming out in October through Foul Play / Viper. I cover a lot of bases on this album. I go from political to just showing that I can be dope to talking about my life. I mean, I cover everything and it’s a really dope project. Honestly, I surprised myself with it, that I have a good project like this on the first try. I think people will be real impressed and there’ll be nobody disappointed. So, I encourage people to check for that.
Yeah, thank you too man!
If you’ve made it this far, you’ve just saved yourself a serious nut kicking! How many litres of bile did you spew? I managed to hold it down, so apologies to all of our bulimic readers for getting your hopes up.
Make sure you pick up “Liar and a Thief” when it drops in October. Sadly, I haven’t heard any of the tracks but the mixtape’s heat and if the album’s filled with beats like Sivey’s, it’s going to be FIIIIRRRREEEE!!! On the subject of Diabolic and UK collaborations, also look out for a track with Grimlok. There’ll be a snippet on The Colony mixtape in August, with the full single dropping in September / October.
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© ukhh.com 2006
Diabolic Interview
Not on this album I don’t think really. I’m really trying to keep this album low budget. I really don’t wanna go crazy with the cost ‘cause then I’m gunna have to recoup all that money. Scram’s still a possibility… Scram’s still defiantly a possibility. But as far as Premier that’s a little out of my price range that I’m really willing to go at. But you can guarantee everybody that at some point in the near future I will be working with Premier.
How did you make the progression from spraying walls to spraying lyrics?
Yeah, the Next Episode, I was going to ask you about that next…..
The biggest scam I ever pulled was….. It wasn’t the biggest but it was pretty clever though. Somebody had gotten caught hustling doing some things that we did on some street stuff…. One of these kids that we worked with… the kid that I used to work with, he was a real paranoid individual… so… he kind of fucked me over on some money. This was a kid I was real tight with; he jerked me out of some money. So I just said I was gunna fuck him up, but instead we parted ways or whatever. Then I was in need of a little bread, five grand that I needed for some things. So I convinced this kid… I threw the word out to a couple people and put him on to the fact that I had gotten ratted out by somebody else and that I needed money for a lawyer. Which never happened of course, I just hustled it and scammed him out of 5 G’s. It was a good one… it was fun haha.
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