A PAGE IN TIME | Page Kennedy

INTERVIEW KB Tindal  PHOTOGRAPH @Russell.Baer

Page Kennedy has been writing the pages of his life story for over 25 years in the creative space. He is a consummate MC and a Shakespearean trained actor. He represents Detroit to the fullest and he's a true artistic and creative soul that embodies every bar that he raps, and every character that he plays. He has been flipping through various pages of his life for years in two of the world's most competitive artistic sports. He started acting almost 25 years ago and he has amassed almost 100 acting credits including Weeds, The Shield, NYPD Blue, Barber Shop, Desperate Housewives, The Upshaws, Snowfall, The Meg and most recently Meg 2 the Trench just to name a few. His musical discography is 10 projects deep from 2017's Torn Pages, 2018’s Same Page Different Story, 2021’s Page, 2022’s Front Pages, 2023’s A Book of Pages, along with his Straight Bars mixtape series which now hosts five volumes. He's gone bar for bar with some of the best in the game like his fellow Detroit native Royce da 5’9, KXNG Crooked, Grafh, The Game, Ransom, 3D Na'Tee, King Los, Elzhi, Fred The Godson, Jon Connor, ANoyd and Nick Grant. Page is on a mission to make you pay just as much attention to his music as you do to his acting, and even though he's 10 projects in, he’s just getting started.

Validated: Was Hip-Hop the first love for you?

Page Kennedy: Michael Jackson was the first love for me. Michael Jackson and then honestly I feel like Michael Jackson and Hip-Hop probably came contemporary for me, like yeah I think they came around the same time, around like seven years old when I fell in love with both of them.

Validated: Okay. Yeah, I mean the same thing for me man. I was a big Jackson Five fan, a huge Michael Jackson fan. I may be a little bit older than you. And then after that Hip-Hop started to infiltrate my life. So yeah definitely kind of like the same thing for me. I'm a huge Michael Jackson fan.

Validated: I know your government name is Felton but where did the name Page come from?

Page Kennedy: It's funny cause Page is short for my nickname and my rap name in high school which was Rampage. So I used to go by Rampage in high school because I played football. When I was playing football I used to get into this mode. It was kind of like my Super Saiyan mode where I just black out and go crazy. It's kind of like what we would call today crashing out like when you get into that mind frame where you just gonna crash out and you just don't care and everything is just a crash out. So I would crash out. This is back when  the movie “Candyman” was out and if you said Candyman a certain amount of times he will appear. That's how Rampage was. So I would have to say it three times Rampage-Rampage-Rampage I would go Super Saiyan mode and that's how I used to be in football. 

I went through many iterations of my rap names. I started as Kid Ice and then I found out that there was Fresh Kid Ice from 2 Live Crew. So I had to change it. So then I was a fan of MC Lyte so I changed it to Kid Light. And then I got a little bit older from that then I changed it to King Ice because I was a big fan of King T and King Sun and then Ice Cube and Ice T were super huge impacts for me during that time with West Coast Hip-Hop and so I combined those two and then I landed on King Ice. And so when I got to high school, and I had Rampage there was this dude named “Snipe” who was older than me and he was a street cat. Even though he was in high school he had already been to jail. He used to sell drugs, he used to do all this stuff. And I kind of used to look up to him because he was rapping differently than I was rapping. I still was kind of lowkey on like some kid shit. I wasn't really cussing. I was like 13. I was like a freshman in high school. I aint really cuss that much. The stuff that I was rapping about wasn't even like that but he was rapping about street shit. He had a song called “Running Child” and it was talking about being in Detroit and going from the East side to the West side and selling drugs and going to jail and shooting people all this shit that I would hear on the West Coast. But like not here in Detroit. So I would battle him and I would always get smoked. First of all he was probably like 16 and I was like 13 so like he was in a whole different part of his life than I was in the first place. So I would always lose to him because I was too soft. And so what I did was that Rampage character that I had for football when I got into the 10th grade I turned it into my rap name too. So then I had a dual personality. I had King Ice which was like my wholesome just bars kind of hip-hop raps. And then I had this other pseudo character that I created called Mr. Rampage. Actually it was just Rampage but then the Busta Rhymes dude from Flipmode Squad he was named Rampage. I was like damn I gotta change my shit again, so I changed it to King Ice. King Ice and Mr. Rampage and Mr. Rampage was just like my alter ego of the Super Saiyan. So I was just talking about shit that I saw and was around me. I wasn't living it but kind of like how Nas did when he was coming out and Kendrick talking about the stuff that is in the environment. So Mr. Rampage came out of that.

Now how Page came to pass is everyone in my school, teachers, principals everybody called me Rampage because I was on the football team and I'm Rampage to everybody and my mom. And the only person who didn't call me Rampage is my dad. My dad said he wasn't going to call me Rampage and my computer teacher. When I was in the 11th grade, I had a computer class. It's so funny because it's probably like 1993. They had big computers that couldn't even really do anything then. It was just like a step above a typewriter. And she told me “I'm not calling you Rampage. That sounds like a thug. I'll call you Page but I ain't calling you Rampage”. And so she used to call me Page. Now when I graduated high school and I went to Grand Rapids Community College the first day I got there I was in my English class and the English teacher said, “Okay what do you guys want to be called?” And because I had just got there and I didn't want to be embarrassed in front of the whole class on my first day in college. I ain’t want to say Rampage and have the teacher do what my computer teacher did, so I was like yeah just call me Page. And there it was born. That's a whole long story. I've never told that story in its entirety. You got the exclusive.

Validated: That's an amazing story. That's what's up man. Definitely. I'm not gonna ask you to rap it but do you remember the first rap that you ever wrote and what was the context of it?

Page Kennedy: So my first rap was called “My Telephone”. [Page raps the lyrics of a song that clearly sounds like it was inspired by LL Cool J’s “Radio”]

Validated: That's what's up man. I hear elements of LL Cool J all up through that.

Page Kennedy: Hell yeah. Krush Groove was my favorite movie back then.

Validated: Definitely. When did you decide you wanted to be an MC not a rapper but an MC and then who was the catalyst to that? Like who did you study?

Page Kennedy: Well back then you were just rhyming and I've been rhyming like I told you since elementary school. I started rapping like around seven and I had that same rap for all of elementary school until I think maybe like the fifth grade. In the fifth grade I wrote my second rap. I was 10 years old in the 5th grade and that's when I wrote my second rap because all throughout those three years I would just do “My Telephone.” It was so good I didn't have to do anything else but that. There was a commercial for this thing called My Buddy Dolls, and it was like “my buddy, my buddy”. So I did a flip on that song and I was like a licentious little scamp at that time early on anyway. So I changed it to “My Dicky” and I would talk about my dick when I was 10 years old “My Dicky, My Dicky I take it everywhere I go. My Dicky, My Dicky, My Dicky and me.” And so in elementary school like obviously all the little kids little boys they love that because they were watching the same commercial that I was and I just flipped my buddy to that. That was popular and so that was the second rap that I wrote when I was in the 10th grade.

There weren't many people to battle in elementary school because I was really the only rapper at that time in elementary school. But in middle school there were other rappers. I was 10. I went to middle school when I was 10. I started middle school at 10 because I had just moved. I had moved from my pops to my moms on another side of town and there were some other kids in that neighborhood that were rapping too. So we were rapping, freestyling, doing all of that shit. I was influenced heavily by Kurtis Blow then it went to Run-D.M.C. Then I was a huge fan of the Fat Boys because of Krush Grove. So that was like through middle school with Slick Rick, Kwame and Kool Moe Dee, LL. Then that moved on to like high school where I fell in love with NWA and Ice Cube became my favorite rapper for a long period of time. I was a fan of Ice Cube. So I fell in love with that West Coast gang culture even though NWA is not gang but it's just the West Coast 90s culture to me is my favorite time in history. It's my favorite zeitgeist.

Validated: I did a lot of listening to a lot of the projects that you have out. One that kept me entrenched was the first was Straight Bars 4 from 2021. You had “The Grand Finale” on there with KXNG Crooked, 3D Natee, The Game, Grafh, Royce Da 5’9 and Locksmith. 

And you had “Made You Look” on Straight Bars from 2017 with Elzhi, Mickey Factz, King Los, Cassidy and KXNG Crooked. 

You also had a song called “Hello” which was  definitely a great way to intro a mixtape over Freeways “What We Do.” You had a song called “Welcome to Detroit” over Cameron's “Welcome to New York City” and that was a vivid colorful descriptive portrayal about life growing up in the D. You left an example for kids to grow up looking at and to be inspired by. Who did you look up to as a kid when you were growing up?

Page Kennedy: Well obviously like we said before everything is always gonna start with Michael Jackson and that's even to this day. I live my life wanting to create indelible greatness and it comes from him. And then his teachings was poured into Kobe Bryant who is also my next hero with the Mamba Mentality. And he got it from Michael Jackson. Those two people were my heroes above everyone else. Kobe is like my favorite athlete of all time. Michael Jackson is my favorite human being born of all time. I looked up to them. When you think about the Hip-Hop space like I said Ice Cube meant so much to me. Obviously for the rapping stuff of course. I can say Ice Cube raps word for word. But also because him and Ice T were like the first rappers that went to be like real actors and I knew I wanted to do that too. They gave me the blueprint to say that it's possible for me to do this. Remember I'm still in Detroit when all of this is happening. I'm just having in my brain, in my mind, this is what I want to do. I know I want to be an actor. I know I want to be a rapper. I want to be like Ice Cube.

Validated: Now if you think about that same song, a lot of the things that you talked about in there are things that happen in the hood in general. How did you escape falling through some of those pitfalls? I know you don't drink. I know you don't smoke. That goes against the grain of a rapper period. Where did you get the mentality from to just say “I'm just not going to do that?” Was that also like the Mamba mentality? Was that also like a Michael Jackson thing or was that something else?

Page Kennedy: It was something else man. My mom was a functioning crackhead. My dad was a hedonist person as well. Me coming from the background that I came from, it was either two ways that you could go. Either you could embrace that background and become that, or you could be scared off by it and deterred from it and that's what I was. I've been through so much growing up as a kid. I saw so much death and destruction all around me and that made me scared. I was a scary kid. So I stayed away from all of that and then I hated seeing my mom when she was high. Because I would always know, like I said she wasn't like the crackheads that you see like in the movies. She was like a functioning addict. But I knew when she was high obviously. There was a certain smell that I hated. It was a certain way her eyes were when she looked at me and I hated it. And I remember her distinctly telling me “Do as I say not as I do.” And I was so mad when she said that. I never want to tell my kids that. I never want to tell my kids that and so I'm gonna make a choice to not drink or not smoke for the rest of my life. And I'm never going to give them an opportunity to say, ‘Well you did it when you were young.” I'm just going to refrain from it and I'm going to tell them that it's possible to grow up immersed in it and choose not to do it if you want to. I see how deleterious it is when you abuse drugs and alcohol. Also I was playing football and I didn't want to contaminate my body. 

So I made a pact with myself and I vowed to never do it and and hope to create generations of Kennedy's that would be completely sober. And I thought that I would have a better state with them if I were to tell them that this is a choice that I made for us. I want to have this thing that I don't know if very many families have. And I've been successful so far. My two oldest kids don't drink, they don't smoke, they don't do drugs and they don't do any of that. I have two younger ones. I got a 11 and 12 year old. I've instilled the same thing in them and hopefully they take that admonishment and want to be a part of this thing that I'm creating and they want to do it for their kids too. So, then you have multiple generations of Kennedys that have been completely sober. I haven't seen families like that before and I wanted to create one.

Validated: I commend you on doing that early and sticking to that and passing that down to your kids. That's super commendable, man. Absolutely. 

Page Kennedy: Appreciate that.

Validated: You did a song called “No Offense”, over Onyx's “Last Dayz” which is one of Onyx's hardest beats and on that song you said that you've been hot since you were on tour with Biggie. Explain that time in your career opening up for B.I.G. opening up for Ice Cube. I mean not a lot of people can say they actually got to chop it up with Big much less shared the stage with Big even from our generation. So tell me what that was like and tell me what you learned from that time that you still carry with you today.

Page Kennedy: So that was an amazing time for me. I was in college during that time. So Big never had an actual like full on tour so he would just do spot dates here and there. And so I would be his opening act during all of his stops in Michigan. So, for me that time was great because we had amazing people that were like on that run on that tour with them like Yuckmouth and the Luniz, I connected with them. It's funny, one of my best stories that I had is I actually battled Yukmouth in Biggie's room. Everybody was there. A lot of the people from Bad Boy were there. Lil' Cease, Numskull they all were there. And it was just me and Yukmouth going back and forth for like 45 minutes. They recorded. That was a dope time. I was young. I was impressionable and it was a fun time being around there and having him do practical jokes on me. We had a good time and Big thought that I was a dope MC and he shared that.

Validated: Book of Pages released in 2023, it has several joints on it. Some of my favorites are “Practice,” “Change,” “God's Grace,” “Why You Hating” featuring John Connor and “I Know” featuring King Los and KXNG Crooked and of course “I'm On One” featuring my guy ANoyd and Nick Grant. And you even got the legendary Ice T on “Phenomenon.” But the track that I want to talk about is “Fly High”. On there you said that “being a rapper is a hazardous occupation.” You even talked about Black on Black crime. Now I have my theory of why I think being a rapper is a hazardous occupation but I want to know what your idea of that is and why you feel that way. And then on top of that I want to know what you do outside of music and outside of acting and music to push the narrative that we don't have to kill each other or that kids don't have to fall victims to the things that they see growing up in the hood.

Page Kennedy: First of all thank you for that illustration of the songs that stood out to you. Those songs stand out to me as well, so it's good to hear what songs stand out to people on the project. So that's dope for sure. I think that rap is a hazardous occupation because I have another occupation and I don't see that happen with them. I don't see athletes killing each other. I don't see doctors killing each other. I don't see any other occupation in the world where they murder each other at all, not less at the rate in which we do. It's scary because it's almost like if you choose this occupation then you choose it at your own peril.

Now I do think that a lot of it could be the energy that you present. I definitely believe that there's certain rappers that you don't imagine or you wouldn't imagine hearing them in any type of confrontation or beef like that. You don't think Common would be shot or Chance The Rapper or Childish Gambino. There are certain people who carry a certain energy that doesn't bring on that negative energy. But then you have other rappers who might come from a certain place and they want to keep that same energy. Or you may have rappers who just feel like the people want to hear about that. And so they bring that type of energy with them. The type of music that they make is that way. So they walk around with that type of energy and it welcome it. So for me because I'm not that way like I don't want that energy. I don't want to give off beef type energy or tough guy shit. I just see all of our young kings. Can you imagine what Big and Pac would have been today? Who knows? They could have been into politics. I imagine that Tupac would have been Will Smith. I feel like he's more talented (no offense). I feel like he's more talented and he was just a baby. He didn't even get an opportunity to see how talented he really was. So Tupac could have very easily been-- it is inconceivable of what he possibly could have been. Biggie only had two albums. Imagine albums of Big and what he would have turned into. So it just makes me despondent to think about how we just murder each other. Then we have the audacity to want to fight and shout out so loud about when other people take our lives but yet we take our lives at a higher rate than anything else.

That might be taboo to say but I wanted to speak on it.

Validated: It's the truth though. It's the absolute truth and sometimes the truth is hard to hear. What do you do outside of acting and music to push that narrative that we don't have to go that way? When I say that, I mean like any kind of nonprofits or how do you give back to the community? How do you get that message to the kids without being preachy or pushy about it?

Page Kennedy: I mean my message is just like the way that I walk through life. People know me to be a lover of human beings and a dad. I'm a dad first and I and I care about love and energy and building kings. So it's just me and how I walk through life is like the biggest harbinger that I can be for the community at this time.

Validated: Your latest release Straight Bars V is fire man so anybody that says Page Kennedy can't fucking rap man go fuck yourself bro.

Page Kennedy: They bugging son. They bugging son. (Laughs)

Validated: For real son. No doubt. You got joints on there like “Come On Baby,” “Over My Limit,” of course you bodied the DJ Khaled joint, “God Did” on “Page Did,” and “8 AM In Thailand” which is a super deep track. I want to know if you felt some karma that was directly related to the way that you may have dealt with women in the past or using the “truth serum” as you so call it in that song. What lessons have you learned from that?

Page Kennedy: I mean, listen bro four kids, four baby mamas and they're all crazy. Obviously the crazy ones had to end up pregnant and some of them I used condoms with and they still ended up pregnant like that was my karma. That was my serendipitous karma because now I have four beautiful children that I love even though you have your issues or whatever with their moms. I was never like with their moms, like it's just something that like one-offs that happened. I don't even know their moms like that. It's not like I was in a relationship with them. You deal with them for as long as you have to deal with them until they get old enough where you don't have to deal with them at all and you only deal with your kids. I call them “My best mistakes I've ever made.”

Validated: There you go.

Page Kennedy: Listen man that that was one of my huge proclivities is women. I didn't drink. I didn't smoke. I didn't do drugs. One of the things that I indulged in is that I love women. So yes stuff comes in dealing with that. When you are in that lifestyle and it comes with that. But I always try to minimize my potential damage. So me being honest with women I think does that because a lot of times men in mendacity to get what they want to achieve that is to their own detriment because a lot of times these girls won't even go crazy on you if you don't lie to them if you don't lure them, you don't gas them and make them think that it's something that is not when you already know that it's not, just to try and get achieve efficacy that you're reaching for. I don't do that. I'm very upfront and honest of what it is and if you are cool with that then we Gucci if not then all right.

Validated: No doubt. I know we've talked about it already a couple of times. You’re a huge fan of Michael Jackson. You even shouted him out on “8 AM In Thailand.” Did you ever see him in concert before he passed away?

Page Kennedy: Unfortunately I didn't. I never met Michael Jackson. I have a good relationship with his children and with his nieces and nephews now. It was amazing to know that during my vine days I was helpful and instrumental in helping one of his children through that time of losing him and with videos. So that was pretty dope. So to be able to feel like I'm able to touch him tangentially that meant everything to me. But honestly I'm kind of okay with the fact that I never met him because the fact that I never met him means he remains a mythical figure. He remains Godlike to me. Sometimes when you meet people that you feel like that way for they could never like actually reach whatever you have made for them in your head of what they are. Because in reality they're just human beings but I don't look at him as a human being. He's like something else to me. And I get to keep that with me forever now. He never had an opportunity to dissuade my view of him.

What if I caught him on a bad day. What if I caught him during the time? What if he didn't know me? Now I would imagine that he maybe would have known me. I've been pretty ubiquitous in the world of film and television for almost 25 years. So, I imagine that it's possible that he could know me but like what if he didn't and then he just kind of-- because there's a different energy when you meet a celebrity and they know you or they are a fan than they just looking at you like a fan or a regular person like you'll get the regular normal thing. But if they see you and it's gonna be affable. They're gonna smile. You're gonna feel like all right this feels like something that is familiar. I would have been sad if he would have gave me the resting bitch face. So I'm glad.

Validated: “Soul Food Music,” You talk about leaving a legacy, generational wealth to your kids and your grand-kids. What are some of the words and lessons that you pass on to them about how to keep that legacy strong after you're gone?

Page Kennedy: WeIl I do a lot of things by example. I show my children by example. I feel like that is the strongest tool that you have to indoctrinate anyone is to let them see it from you. Let them see how it's done more so than just words. Words can be just anything. They could be cast aside but actions are something that have a huge impact. So that's what I do. They see how I operate. They see how I am as a dad. They see my patience. They see my forbearance. They see my passion and they see how hard I fight. 

So like just the other day man, this was a great moment for me because I've been rapping for so long. I've been rapping longer than the people that are on the internet that are commenting have been alive. I never had an opportunity to get that big break. Even though I had legends on my projects, like I still never got like the vast amount of the work to really know like if you know you know, but possible that you don't know. So just as of late when these freestyles have been starting to be disseminated-- and what's crazy is the “Victory is Mine.” I dropped that in 2017. And no one cared. There's a video for it. The video probably got 4000 views or something. I knew that this destroyed everything. You don't touch that beat bro unless you’re going do what I did on that beat. Otherwise you leave it alone. I knew that was one of my favorite songs of mine of all time and no one ever checks for it. Nobody ever asked me about it. Nobody seen it. No one heard it. And I'm just like “Damn man.” And then I do that and now all of a sudden “Oh my god.” Listen bro better late than never right.

There's this big YouTuber guy named No Life Shaq who did a reaction video to that and I watched it with my girl and with both my sons. We all watched it together. And I just felt so elated because I was watching someone react to me the way that I react to me. The way that I feel like people should react when they listen to me. I was watching that so it made me not feel like I'm crazy for feeling the way that I feel as an actor. Because clearly other people can feel like that too if they hear me. And to watch my oldest son see someone else think I’m cool, because he’s 25 and he doesn't think I'm cool. I'm like competition to him. He knows he’s next. He is the prince. So his mindset is like I need to be great to continue this legacy. I don't make the type of music that he likes. Even in my acting sometimes it's not like his favorite thing. He's a whole different generation than me. I feel like there's a different relationship between me and him, then how I would imagine Bronnie and Lebron relationship is or even Will Smith and Jaden. Even though I don't really know what their relationship is. Maybe they like “Nigga I don't care” too but I doubt it.

I want to impress my son. My 12 year old son just loves me and he adores me. I'm his hero. So he was smiling from ear to ear the whole time like me. When my son sees another young person like him giving me love like that, that made me feel so good. To watch my girl, she's so happy because she sees how happy I am because I feel relieved for so long. Bro I feel like I'm the best actor rapper in the world. I feel like diversity, probably not physically or popularity wise. But as far as diversity of skill, as far as everything that I do within both art forms I feel like nobody does that better than me. Nobody can do drama, comedy, Shakespeare, do Straight Bars type songs, vibe songs, socially conscious songs, storytelling. Like all of the things that I am far as the whole diversity of who I am I feel like I'm the best.

It feels like Blasphemous to me to say that because then people just want to start saying these names, these names that you look at as greats and legends that are so rich and who've done so much and accomplished so much in the world. But I'm talking about right now, in this moment, when it comes to doing them both at the same time in the way that I do it, I feel like nobody is better than me. To see that that is finally starting to be disseminated means everything to me.

Validated: Absolutely. I completely agree. You can put people on a pedestal based on what they've done for the culture and that's cool. I'm not knocking that at all, what I mean but somebody that's doing both in both genres that's very hard to do. It's very-very hard to do and to do it at a high level and where you're doing it is even harder. So the fact that people are finally coming around to like that 2017 freestyle, what's old to you is new to somebody else. So the fact that it's finally coming full circle for you that's a great thing. And the fact that you got to experience that with your family is priceless.

Page Kennedy: Yes indeed. 

Validated: Can you tell me a little bit about what the journey was like from the time that you decided to study theater at Western Michigan University and what happened afterward when you decided to go further and attend The Graduate Theater program at the University of Delaware? Tell me about those experiences a little bit.

Page Kennedy: Well my dad was a very big part of my life. I don't think that he did things in an appropriate way of raising me but it worked. And to me results matter the most. So it's not necessarily how this cake was made but if this cake is made and you’re tasting this delicious cake then we are good. But he definitely put some ingredients in there that shouldn't have been in there. But I wanted to commemorate him by getting my education and then I wanted to be great. I told you Michael Jackson made me want to be great, not good, not serviceable, not rank and file but great. I knew that the great actors came from the theater. And I knew that I loved Shakespeare and classical theater. And I wanted to be as prepared as possible when I came to LA because I knew that that was the final destination. So I tried to continue my education and just get better so that I was equipped when I got here. And circumstances just aligned where I decided to leave school early and come to California. And the acting just happened immediately. I snuck into an audition and got the part and that's what started my journey off as an actor. And that was paying the bills because at this time unless you had a record deal you couldn't get heard. 

Bro I got albums since I was in Middle School, High School, College. There's people in the world that got tapes from me from when I sound like a chipmunk probably. But if you didn’t have a record deal then the only thing you could do is pass them out to your friends and your family and whatever until the internet came and it allowed you to be able to spread your projects around the world through that. So that basically was the process of me going from Western Michigan University. I went to Grand Rapids Community College. Then I went to Western Michigan University and then I went to University of Delaware for graduate school because I wanted to be better. I wanted to be great when I got to Los Angeles.

Validated: We talked about early memories and stuff like that but I want to know what is your earliest memory of Hip-Hop? What was the first thing that you saw that made you say, “Oh I want to be a part of this culture?”

Page Kennedy: I don't know if I definitely have an exact first moment but I do have a first period that I can remember just on my own. And it's just my brother who was 10 years older than me letting me hear either “Rapper’s Delight” or I'm pretty sure that that probably was it. But Kurtis Blow was the first rapper I remember acknowledging his person, his name, who he was. Kurtis Blow was the first one. So that is what I remember first is hearing and seeing Kurtis Blow seeing my brother become a part of the hip-hop culture far as like he used to wear Lee jeans. And then if he had little lint on them I used to see him like picking a lint off of his jeans. So it's like so crisp with crease in them. I remember like the shoes he would wear. I remember him like wearing tracksuits like Adidas tracksuits and stuff. And so I just remember that part of the time. And I remember the graffiti and the dance and us putting card boards out on the ground and break dancing. And I remember Electric Boogaloo, a movie that I was so enamored by because I wanted to be like Turbo so bad because his girlfriend was so cute and she didn't even speak English. And he could walk on the ceiling. As a kid that's like a superhero to me. And he was brown skinned so I'm like dang I want to be that.

Validated: Who is the one artist or producer that actually makes you want to step your pen game up even more when you're in the studio with them?

Page Kennedy: Well not in the studio with them. But I realized that I have a certain BPM that I love so much. This one producer who did all of some of my favorite beats to rap on, on Straight Bars wise and it's Just Blaze. I realized that I use so many Just Blaze beats and I blazed all of them every single time. He's like a producer that I would love to have an opportunity to work with because with the Straight Bars stuff I feel like I probably use more beats from him than anybody else.

Validated: Who do you want to work with acting wise that you haven't worked with yet?

Page Kennedy: Denzel Washington.

Validated: Of course.

Page Kennedy: Of course right. I want to work with Denzel Washington. I would love to work with Viola Davis and Meryl Streep.

Validated: Okay. That's what's up man. Great people as far as that acting sphere is concerned. Absolutely.

Page Kennedy: I'm going to put you on the spot here but just because I want to know and I implore you to be candid in this answer because it's all good. I just would like to know. What is your initial response when you hear me obviate about me being the best rapper/actor right now? What does your brain initially think when you hear that? And not just because you are talking to me right now but is it like “Ah he bugging” and then some names come to things at head and then you have reasons of why you feel that way. The reason I'm asking this is because I'm trying to see if I'm tripping. And if I am, I would like to speak to somebody who is able to express himself in a cogent fashion to make me understand why. When you hear the initial thing and people initially they just immediately say, “What Pac, Will Smith?” They just start rattling off but then when I go into being specific with them and I go into explaining like my skill set versus them, and the whole thing then they have to like reconsider that. I'm curious to see for your own personal opinion what do you think when I say that?

Validated: First of all I think you have every right to say it. Second of all, I believe it. And the reason I say that is because I can pull up Pac and say if Pac was still here I think Pac would have probably won an Oscar by now. I think Pac would have had Grammy winning albums etc. Will Smith is great. I was never really a fan of Will Smith as a rapper. I've always been entrenched in more bars, things that are more hardcore that's just my era, that's how I grew up and that's what I am attracted to. I can even put Ludacris in that conversation and say Ludacris is a great actor but Ludacris is also a great MC as well. Your dialect and your word play is different from all of those other dudes. Like the words that you use some people gotta look them shits up in the dictionary and be like “Yo what the fuck is he talking about? But the way that you incorporate it lyrically into songs nobody else is doing that. I watched an interview with you with Big Boy and I forget what the fucking word was. (Obsequious was the word) But you said some shit and I was like even know what the fuck that shit is.

Page Kennedy: I probably said in this interview that you was like I don't know what the fuck that is.

Validated: No, you said a couple. When I go back and edit this I'm gonna be like “Okay, let me double down on that and look that one up.” But that's the beauty of it though. That's the beauty of it right? That's the beauty of you as an individual and as an MC right? I feel like you are one of the best that’s doing both at this point at this time right here right now in 2024. You're one of the best that is doing rapping and acting. I want to see you gain more accolades for both. 25 years in the game, I want to see you get in a movie that's Oscar nominated. I want to see you reach that plateau. I want to see you take that Shakespearean taught acting that you have in you and move it to an even higher level on the big screen. And then as far as the music is concerned I want to see you put out a project that resonates with people. That resonates with more than just your immediate core fan base of people that love lyricism. I want to see you be able to put something out that does that. And that gets you bigger accolades for being an MC, not a rapper but an MC.

Page Kennedy: In this climate of me being a man of a certain age, I don't necessarily make music that my 25 year old would like. That is the demographic of people that are pushing the big thing forward. 

How do I resonate with the masses when I come from the Golden Era and I give off the energy of that type of rapping? Even though my Straight Bars series sounds nothing like my albums. My albums are completely different where I do have melodic songs and songs that are just aesthetically pleasing to the ear. I'm still not necessarily catering to that other audience. So I'm curious how one even does that?

Validated: I don't think you have to cater to the audience. Of course I think you just keep doing what you're doing. Killer Mike is a perfect example of that. Killer Mike did not cater to today's sound of music and he walked away and swept the fucking Grammys. The people just happened to be listening at the right time and he dropped the project at the right time and he got a lot of popular people that got behind it and was like “Yo this is that shit.” The Academy happened to listen.

I think Jay said it perfectly when he said, “They don't always get it right too” because they don't but there are times when they do. I think that's a testament to just being an artist staying in your wheelhouse and doing what feels right to you on the music. The worst thing you could ever do is try to make music that goes to a certain genre or a certain age. That's the worst thing you could ever fucking do. That'll get you more foul comments than anything else. Keep doing exactly what you're doing and at some point I feel like it'll resonate with people other than just us.

Page Kennedy: That was a two-part question. The second part of that is: If you had to for your own personal opinion not like whatever the accolades have been but for your own personal opinion. If you put me compared to whoever you think the best actor is in the world, whoever that is for you and then you put me next to the best rapper in the world, whoever you think that is which do you think I'm closer to meaning which one do you think I'm better at for you personally?

Validated: That's a tough fucking question.

Page Kennedy: I know that's why I asked you. I helped you by saying if you take whoever the top actor is for you and you put me next to them am I closer to them or am I closer to whoever you think the top best rapper is? I feel like that can help you see which one you look at me better as.

Validated: I think you're closer to the top actor that I would choose, which would be Denzel.

Page Kennedy: That's your favorite actor?

Validated: Yes. That's my favorite actor. He's my favorite. Jeffrey Wright is another one of my favorites.

Page Kennedy: Oh.

Validated: Yes. There's a few others but Denzel is the cream of the crop. As far as MCs are concerned Jay-Z is my favorite but Rakim is my all-time favorite.

Page Kennedy: Oh wow.

Validated: And prior to Rakim it would be Grandmaster Caz from the Cold Crush Brothers. So those three guys are like my Elite MC's. But I would put you closer to Denzel than I would to Jay-Z.

Page Kennedy: Got it. Okay. That makes sense. Well thank you for answering those tough questions.

Validated: Absolutely.

Page Kennedy: I just like to hear perspectives and see how what I do is being disseminated to the world and the public and so I appreciate that.

Validated: Absolutely.

Page Kennedy: Go ahead, ask your last question.

Validated: Two more questions. What does acting mean to you?

Page Kennedy: Acting to me is an expression of emotions that you don't necessarily get to live through in your real life. So, I'm able to emote and live through characters' stories, feelings that I might not necessarily have in my real life. Now I think that is so important because I'm such a balanced human being. I don't get too high. I don't get too low. I try to stay balanced and tranquil. Sometimes it's fun to express myself as a villain. Sometimes it's fun to express myself in different facets and ways that might not be completely natural to me. I enjoy doing that. I feel like it makes me a more rounded person.

Validated: Actually. Two more questions because that answer just spawned another question. What has been the hardest role for you to prepare for and what has been the hardest song for you to write?

Page Kennedy: The song- there's two songs shit-- there's actually three songs that were the hardest songs for me to write? One song was called “Letter” which I'm pretty sure you never even heard of before but it's a song that I did with Elzhi. There's a video for it on YouTube it's called “Letter,” and it was me writing a letter to my two kids that I had. The ones that are older now. But they were like little when I was writing this letter. It was me being in college a young kid not wanting to have kids trying to figure out my way not knowing how to be a dad, not wanting to have been a dad and just trying to figure the shit all out like in real time when I have all these hopes and dreams of what I wanted to do in my life. And now this is somewhat being derailed by this hurdle that came there, how I'm trying to work through it. And then writing them this letter being completely honest of how it happened, how it occurred, where they came from, how they appeared. And then me and my emotions and feelings behind it. And then that second verse.

That second verse that I had I remember specifically writing that verse I was driving from Detroit in a blizzard snowstorm to Grand Rapids which is like I always went from Detroit to Grand Rapids to Kalamazoo because I went to Grand Rapids Community College and I went to Western Michigan University. So I was constantly doing that triangle all the time. And I remember being in snowstorm leaving even from my son Tim. And he probably was like two or three or something and he was just so scared of me. When I would come there he would just run behind his mom's leg and hide from me. And that really like broke my heart. I remember writing that rap while I'm driving because I didn't write. I used to just make the rap in my head and say it out loud, that's how I would learn it. I remember I was just balling, crying. And then I realized like I was also crying because even though it was hard for me to do, it was so effortless for me to create because I had just experienced him doing this to me. And I just felt so grateful that God was just letting the words just pour out in the imagery of what was actually happening. It was just flowing out of me. And you know me, I don't just say stuff like one way. My stuff is like layered. Like how I paint my pictures is like Shakespeare. They need to be layered into intricate writing. I'm such a huge fan of Shakespeare. I'm painting this picture but it's still barred up. I remember making that and then getting to my daughter's part and like remembering how she was with me and treating me and how she didn't want to be around me or bothered by me because she was just a baby. Here this strange man is coming. So that song was hard. The “Page Did” song was like actually writing hard for me. Man I'm not going to lie it took me like two months to write that rap.

Validated: You bodied that shit though.

Page Kennedy: Listen to me. I almost gave up on that rap so many times because I just didn't think it was good enough. I was like I was struggling. Because I knew how important that song is and what Jay-Z did to it and I tried to tell my story and I just felt like I don't like it. I don't like it's not good enough. I don't like my word play, it's like I was struggling. It took me two months to make that damn song bro. And then when I did it I still was like damn it's not good. It's not good. It wasn't until it was fully done with everything applied to it that I was like “Oh shit.  Oh shit.” It took me that long and then obviously the last hardest song which is actually probably one of my favorite songs that I've done, it's in my top five for sure is “Giving Up.” “Giving Up” is the last song on the Book of Pages album and it's me talking about the whole like releasing of the album. And ”Giving Up” wasn't a part of the album. I allowed like my Pagers to be able to buy the album from me personally before I put it out on streaming platforms and like nobody was buying it. The despondency of having a listening party and I was the only party listening was very difficult for me. And I talked to Elzhi, and I was giving him my passion of like how frustrated I was in my life because I spent $100,000 on this album of my acting money and I put this shit out and nobody cares. And then this punk ass strike came and it came right before my fucking movie. I'm thinking that this movie is about to turn me into a movie star. I'm like all right, I'm in a franchise. I get to kick ass in this movie and everybody says that I'm testing the highest in this movie and it's about to change my life and everything's about to be up and how many actors actually get to be in a summer blockbuster franchise movie. And I got all this shit going and then right before my fucking movie comes out the strike happens. And I can't promote my shit. I got a song in the movie and they wanted to fly me to China to perform it at the national Chinese Theater and I've never performed at a big ass amphitheater like that. They were gonna have dancers. They were gonna have like a big huge thing. I was on a whole China tour just flying around the world promoting my movie and all of that. And I've been waiting for that all damn year and then right before the movie comes out we go strike and I can't say shit. And it just destroyed me bro, it just destroyed me. I was so angry. I was apoplectic with rage and the only thing that I could do is like immerse myself into the actual art form of what we were doing and get my ass out on those picket lines and walk for the cause even though I was so mad that we went on strike right before my fucking movie. So I wrote a song about it and I poured all of that passion into that “Giving Up” song. And it's performed well. That's an attribute that I have that other rappers don't have. I'm an actor and so I know how to make something be gradual and I know how to make it crescendo slowly to make you feel some kind of way. So those are the three hardest ones. 

Validated: I know you needed to get that out. I needed to hear that. And I got to say that it sucks that that shit happened right at the time when you were right there. But you have to believe that there's something else better coming. You gotta believe that.

Validated: What was the hardest role for you to prepare for?

Page Kennedy: Hardest role for me to prepare for. This is a crazy ass answer but I feel like it's the truth. The hardest role for me to prepare for was something that nobody has even seen. I did this thing for these YouTubers called Rhett and Link's Buddy System. I feel like it was like when YouTube was making original series like full on series and they brought me in for a few episodes to play this magician. And this magician has so much dialogue. Then along with the dialogue he also had performances that he had to do. He spoke very difficultly, like the writing for him was so condensed. It was dense and there was so much. And then not only am I struggling to like, learn these lines, I had to actually learn how to be a magician and look like I know how to do it. And that's a difficult thing for an actor. A lot of times an actor is made to look like he is the best in the world at something that they're doing that we're just learning how to do ourselves. We're the absolute best.

Bradley Cooper in Maestro, him having to do that and bro I feel like he bodied that role. And I feel like if this was any other time like he would have won that Oscar for that because that was such an arduous task to try to make this man look like he was the greatest Maestro of all time. And you watching him knowing why he's the greatest because you’re watching it and he never even knew how to do any of that. You know how hard that is to be a professional at something that you don't even know what this is? I marveled at magicians. I never imagined I could fucking pull that off. But I had to do it. That gave me a lot of anxiety because  I was nervous and scared that I wouldn't do a good job.

Validated: Last question man Hip-Hop turned 50 years old last year. We’ve been part of this culture pretty much since day one, outside of maybe a few years. In the spirit of Hip-Hop turning 50 man what does Hip-Hop mean to you?

Page Kennedy: Man Hip-Hop means to me my life, my lifestyle, my makeup. Everything that I walk through in life is from the way I dress, from the way that I talk, from the way that I feel. I feel like I am Hip-Hop. I feel like that's who I am. That's who I am in my core and I love it and I appreciate it. I'm right now currently working on a project where I conjugate Hip-Hop culture with Shakespeare in order to try and bring Shakespeare to a new younger broader audience that was either intimidated by it or didn't care about it because its stories are still relevant. I am going to use his words in a story that young people actually know about or care about. I’ll use it through the conduit of Shakespeare's text. And hopefully that's something that I could be known for bringing back to a broader audience. So it's Shakespeare and the first thing is Macbeth In Compton.

Validated: Macbeth In Compton… Okay, that sounds like something. I'm looking forward to it. Absolutely.

Page Kennedy: Imagine Snowfall meeting Shakespeare's Macbeth and that's what it is.

Validated: Page man thank you so much for taking the time out man to join me man. It's truly been a pleasure to kind of pick your brain and just just hear your truth. I commend you on the things that you're doing, keep doing exactly what you're doing. Don't change shit for nobody. Just keep doing exactly what you're doing man. As far as being an MC they will listen they will listen you just keep banging them in the fucking head and they gonna listen bro.

Page Kennedy: That's what's up man. Hey, I appreciate you. It's been a very fun interview. I really enjoyed it.