Unfortunately, my interview with Toki Wright yielded far more points of interest than my 500 word limit would allow. Not wanting to just lose all the great things we talked about, I decided to post the rest of the interview here. Enjoy!

Toki Wright on Obama:

“[The economic crisis] has always been there in the urban community, and now its an issue for the entire country to have to deal with. Food shortages, the prison system, violence… Unless these conversations happen, unless we work together as people, we can’t expect anything to change. The good thing about this past election is, whatever side of the issue you were on, people were speaking up. I’m a Barack Obama supporter. I wasn’t initially; I wasn’t an anybody supporter. I’m always a skeptic when it comes to any politician because to be a politician, you have to be crafty, you have to be a good liar. That’s where the question of ethics comes in. Do you appeal to whatever will get you elected, or do you stick to your guns and have your own opinion? I came around [to Obama] probably during the primaries, probably right before Iowa. I saw him as somebody that knew how to speak to different crowds of people and actually take their opinion into consideration.

The youth are interested in politics, people of color are interested in politics, women are interested in politics when they have representation. When you feel like you’re not going to be truly represented either way, that’s when people get apathetic. When Bush gets a second term and you go out there and work your ass off to try to prevent that, you see in the end somebody’s gonna cheat anyway. This time it proved, at least, that if you really believe in something, it can actually happen. The fact that he brought people together and the fact that he was open-ended to all these different opinions doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have a strong opinion. He has a cool head, especially being an African-American going through this race and hearing the things people were saying about him. It’s really cold-hearted. He has to be a level-headed person to take on all the crap he’s gonna get, just being from where he’s from, looking the way he does, and even having the education that he has. But that’s the positives of having Bush in office and having the real polar opposite is that real comments come out. Bush in office made people go ‘This is horrible, this is really not how I wanna live’. I like the fact that the economy did come up because it would have been really hard for him to win.”

On how his experience comes into his music:

“I like to have a descriptive one on one conversation and connect with people on some level, even those who don’t know my experience or have dealt with it first hand they can understand where I’m coming from and try to relate to me on a human level. I was raised Buddhist so my whole outlook on life is different form a lot of my friends. I tended to stand out all throughout my life, so its like my attitude as far as eye for an eye or just violence in general, towards self-preservation, towards law, fortune, and faith, have been really open. That’s the way I was taught, to take somebody’s opinion, take it into consideration, and turn around and have your opinion. Sometimes it comes out contradicting itself, which is fine. What goes up must go down. ”

On mainstream rap radio:

“I’m battling this whole notion that, as a black hip-hop artist, there’s a box. You have to come from a certain set of circumstances to be acceptable. That’s one of the great things about Barack Obama. He wasn’t even considered black a year ago. Who cares where Al Green is from? Who cares where Guns ‘N Roses went to high school? Does the shit bang? As a hip-hop artist, you’re always faced with ‘am i hard enough’ even if you decide to be totally opposite that. Its a reaction to the fact that you have to be hard as a hip-hopper. That’s what trips me out about the radio; I call it ‘urban pop’. Its the information age. We’re inundated with information, sometimes you just want somethin’ simple. You see how hip-hop has progressed to really basic, short words… You see that in the dancehall and reggae scene, there’s a new song every day, nobody can really make any money! You can be hot this week and trash next week.

I understand all music, I grew up going to parties, school dances… Havin’ rugged hip hop music in the car. The problem is there’s not enough variety. I can’t even have an opinion on what I wanna hear on the radio. When somebody breaks through on a commercial level and says something of importance, with style, like Lil Wayne or Jay Z, Nas, Common, Talib Kweli, even E-40, just the fact that he can still be creative [after all these years]. …I like T-Pain. But I like T-Pain doin’ T-Pain, I don’t wanna hear nobody else doin’ T-Pain. …Some things people are gonna look back on and go.. Oh, maybe that wasn’t hot… What were we thinking? It’s good to have your timeless music. I go for trying to make music that’s gonna last more than a couple months.”

On the government:

“My opinion on government is that the government is a mechanism, its a bunch of written laws built to maintain this mechanism. You do something, here’s the reaction to it. You spend money, this is how the market reflects it. But inside of those machines, you have humans, you have heart. You can’t give a machine a heart, but you can get the people within it to try and redirect it. So, now its time for somebody who feels like they don’t have an opinion at all to affect the people who run the machines. Hopefully my music has some sort of effect on the heart of the people.”

On his dual roles as artist and community activist:

“I like to say what I feel. Being an activist, in a community role, you’re a little bit more restrained. There’s a time and place. When you’re performing, you’ve got a 30 to 45 minute box, where everybody’s looking at you, you can say whatever you feel. You can have an opinion one place, and say, here’s to refute that opinion. When you’re in the community and there’s the livelihood of others at stake, you have to be a lot more cautious. I’ve been trying more so now a days to keep things more separate. I try to be helpful in the community, but a big part of me just wants to be an artist. The artist has a role. In some communities, art is just a way of life. My work, if it has a positive affect on the community, is that not community work? What would the 60s be without radical music? What would a wedding be without wedding music? What would the holidays be without holiday music? Its important. That is community work. Community is about bringing people together and dealing with issues, and if you can do that in a song, be the best damn songwriter you can.

I think I spread myself thin sometimes, trying to be everything for every body. If I can just make great music first, that’s my truest passion. Doin’ work in my community is natural. That’s what I have to do. I have no choice but to do it. But if I start to think I need to be a community musician, if I look at it like that, its too big for your mind to wrap itself around. I’m just gonna make music, it doesn’t mean I’m gonna stop. Sometimes I get typecast just as this community person, which I am, but I’ve done a lot on the music and artist front that I need to shine light on all the things I’ve done musically.”

On touring with Brother Ali:

“Initially when you go out with an artist that’s more established and people don’t know you, every day is a talent show. People are already [shrugs shoulders] before you even say anything. I had a lot of training in that growing up, especially in the black community. You go to a show, people will let you know before you rap ‘you whack!’ Being on tour like that has taught me how to talk to different crowds of people. I started off hosting shows, I went from hosting to doing two fifteen minute segments, to having my own set. I learned there’s certain things you cant do in 15 minutes. People cant really get to know you in a couple songs. But you better damn well try your hardest. I’ve been performing for a long time, way before I even knew who Rhymesayers was. I remember The C.O.R.E. [Toki's group with rapper A.D.] did a show at a kindergarten class in Woodbury like 8 years ago, and I was like, where the hell am I? How did I get here? Little kids in the front jumping up and down, their parents in the back with their arms crossed, like ‘what the hell you teaching the kids?’ So there’s all these little training grounds. I’m gonna work my ass off. I don’t want nobody just giving me opportunity. I want you to see my work ethic. I’m not gonna give up. I want people to know that when you come see me, I’m sweatin’ my ass off, because I really believe in what I’m doin’. I want you to want it. The veins are poppin’ outta my neck cuz this is comin’ from my soul. I don’t mind touching people, I like to let you know I’m real; this is not a story, this is not imaginary, this is my experience and my experience is real. Often times we have different communities of people that only cross at certain points. If i have a chance to cross in front of a group of people that has no idea what my experience and what my life is, I want you to know I’m here, I’m alive, what I’m talking about is real, this is reality.”

On conscious rap and acting hard:

“What is consciousness? If you’re truly conscious of your surroundings, you’ll realize that people don’t like being preached to. I don’t want you telling me whats wrong about me all the time. In order for us to move forward, I need to feel like we have some sort of relationship. I don’t want some person that walks down off a pedestal and says ‘you guys gotta get your life together’. I feel like the traditional ‘conscious’ artists have a tough time dealing with themselves and their own personal issues of how they need to present themselves, how they can be accepted. I listen to some of everything, I do some of everything. I deal with my own demons and contradictions, all that stuff. It is what it is. I like a good story. I don’t wanna be a pimp, [but] I like a good Too $hort story about bein’ a pimp. If somebody wants to tell a story about violence, whats really goin’ on, yeah, tell me. I’m not really into glorifying it for no reason. Life gives you certain circumstances where you have to be hard; [but] the nature of people, as fans or as artists, we think you have to be all of one thing. Just tough, just hard, I’m hard when I’m eating my cereal, I’m hard when I’m takin’ a shower. Sometimes I’m just into people just sayin’ some fresh shit. At the same time, sometimes I don’t want you to know me. Sometimes all I want you to know is that I will whoop your ass. [laughs] In certain situations, I don’t want you to break that wall. I just want you to dance, I just want you to party. I’m doin’ my job up here so that you guys have fun and we’ll leave it at that.”

On doing shows around the world:

“I did a show in Birmingham, Alabama in this little hillbilly bar. You know, I’ve never heard a whole lot of polite things about being black in Alabama. I went in, did the show, people were gettin’ into it, small crowd maybe about 100 people, there was just love. It was about the music. I’m like, I like Birmingham! This is a good city! It goes back to being able to make a connection, just making good music. I was doin’ this show in Uganda once… African b-boys goin’ nuts, crowd is wildin’ out… Wall to wall packed around, performing with a cordless mic in a circle, I’m just strollin’ around, this kid from Minnesota, goin’ across the water and rappin’ in the motherland… This is kinda fresh right now! I can’t say that, cuz I’m a rapper and I gotta act tough. There’s a certain part of being an artist where you have to tell your story. I’ve done some dope things; if i don’t tell people, its like they don’t exist, to the rest of the world except myself. I’ve done a lot of stuff, I come home and just kind of melt back into my regular life. Play in front of 10,000 people one day, then come home and take out my trash. But in the rap world I want people to actually know. That goes to, who am i making music for? Am I making it for myself? Otherwise I’m just another dude. I’m never one of those people that thinks that just because I rap, people have to care. Why be interested in me when I got ten rappers on my block who think they’re the greatest too? My answer to that is, they’re not me. [laugh]”

Don’t forget to check out Mr. Wright at the Dinkytowner on Saturday, December 27!

Tags: Dinkytown, Hip Hop, Interview