AMERIKKKA'S NIGHTMARE III: CITY UNDER SIEGE: GENERAL STEELE

INTERVIEW INNOCENT? PHOTOGRAPH SEN FLOYD PRODUCTIONS LLC

One half of the legendary Brooklyn hip hop duo, Smif-N-Wessun, General Steele, teams up with producer Es-K for the third installment, “Amerikkka’s Nightmare III: City Under Siege”. The thought provoking, socio-political album tackles issues affecting the black and brown communities across the country. Reporting live from the trenches, General Steele gives the world a factual unbiased firsthand account of the everyday trial and tribulations facing men and women of color. In short, the injustices are many and the results are little to none in our favor. “The Amerikkkan Dream” has become a nightmare for us. With lines like “wickedness in the White House, a movement of evil doers, kalooting at their communion on new maneuvers to screw us…”, General Steele sheds light on the obvious government corruption. Validated sat down with the emcee to talk about the album, blatant injustice, the importance of mental health and much more.

“Like I’m an artist, I rap. Like my job is to take the information and make it into a palatable form so you can listen to it while you smoke your reefer, or while you drive to work, or while you’re working out and stuff like that. My job isn’t to change your opinion.” - GENERAL STEELE

VALIDATED: For the people who don’t know, can you give us a little background about who General Steele is?

GENERAL STEELE: My name is General Steele, if the E ain’t at the end then it ain’t me. One half of Smif-N-Wessun and one eighth of the almighty supergroup WWBCC, Boot Camp Clik… Sean Price for life! I entered the stage rockin’ with Black Moon in ‘92, ‘93 on their album, on their project, “Enta da Stage”. And after that, me and my PCP Tek Smokee La, we dropped our debut single in 1994 and our album in 1995. That was our first album dropped. We dropped our seventh album, our seventh commercial release was “The All” produced by 9th Wonder and the squad. Yeah, but I’ve been in this thing since ‘95 and I’m like a dinosaur. You know what I’m saying? So, all my albums are like fossils. You find those, they are very valuable. You know what I mean? Seven in Smif-N-Wessun and about five in with the Boot Camp Clik. Um, about four commercial joints, solo. And a whole slew of features with all kinds of guys. I did songs with Biggie and Tupac. There are only a few guys I didn’t do songs with. How about that? You know what I mean? So, it’s on a trail. You know? Google me baby! General Steele. It’s there.

VALIDATED: You mentioned doing songs with Biggie and Tupac. Are there any legends that you haven’t worked with yet that you’d like to work with?

GENERAL STEELE: Yeah, I haven’t done anything with Nasir Jones. I haven’t done anything with Chuck D. I did songs with KRS-One, Raekwon, Method Man and Mr. Cheeks. I got songs… I never did a song with LL Cool J. But I’m good with that. I don’t need to do a song with him. He’s way past my league. But I would love to do a joint with Chuck D. That’s one of my dream joints. Yo, there’s a few other guys or younger cats that I would like to rock with. But you know, the names are too numerous to mention. But I just like to create and I like what individuals are doing with the freedom of just being dope, with their style. Ya’ know?

VALIDATED: Definitely. So, being from Brooklyn, New York, what is your earliest memory of hip-hop culture?

GENERAL STEELE: My earliest memory? Aside from “The World’s Famous Supreme Team Show”. My pops, my old ass father, my old man… rest in peace. (Laughs) Love you dad. My dad used to play “The World Famous Supreme Team Show”. That was rap music in my crib. Other than that, it was jazz, it was classical, it was funk, it was soul… Funkadelic Parliament. (Laughs) It was a lot of soul. My dad would feed my soul. He was with the music. He was with all of the things that we went later on and probably sampled and rapped to later. So, as far as hip-hop, that was my scratch of the surface. Um, the explosion in the ‘80s as a young kid, was watching the parties in the park. I lived on the 14th floor in the Seth Low Projects, Brownsville all day. But from the 14th floor, when you look outside, my father wasn’t letting me go outside… none of that. Let’s be clear, I wasn’t in a jam like this. You can’t sneak out from the 14th floor. You know what I’m saying? It’s one way in and one way out. So, I had to, you know, respect my father’s wishes. You can’t go down there. But in the park, right across the street, they had a school right across the street from me, it was PS 150. And they would have jams in their park. And probably nine times out of ten, they would end in a fight or it got shot up. Don’t deter you from going, but that was my early visions of just looking out my father’s window going “Damn, I want to be there.” You know? “I want to be in there.” You know? Everything was poppin’. You had all of the guys, the females that were coming out. LL Cool J like I mentioned. Salt n Pepper, Run DMC, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane, Juice Crew. There was a whole slew of guys that were coming out. And just seeing the whole hip-hop experience. So, everything… Doug E. Fresh, Slick Rick, Grandmaster Flash, everything. You know what I mean? Furious Five, I rock with all that. My uncle put me on to a lot of hip-hop as well as Dance Hall. So, that was my early experience and it was really hardcore, coming up in rap. You know? As far as just absorbing it as a student.

VALIDATED: So, how did you get your start as an artist?

GENERAL STEELE: I got my start, unprofessionally in High School. Um, with a brother named Chase from Chauncey… Brownsville side of things; Chauncey, Saratoga area. This was a brother who to me at the time he was way more advanced lyrically. He was way more advanced and we kind of resembled each other. We both had like a big ass nose. Little kids… we liked Polos. So, he was like, “Yo bro, you want to do my part?” And I was like, “Fuck it, let’s do it.” (Laughs) I didn’t have no plan. I basically followed him, whatever he said I was with it. You know what I mean? So High School, at that time, it just had me, I was on my student vibe. So, I was with a lot of stuff. You know? As long as it didn’t get back to my parents, to disappoint them in no crazy ways I was with it. So that was my first partner, this guy named Chase. Salute to Chase. Salute to Mama Jo because Mama Jo sponsored everything Chase wanted to do. We shot our first video in Queens, the Colosseum Mall with Shirt Kings. They had a green screen in it bro, we shot two videos on the green screen. None of that shit excited me but I was like alright this is a learning process and I was with it because I knew that son, he had a little bit more energy. And I just rocked out with him. His uncle was managing us for a spell and then we did two shows. This is when the shit hit the fan. We did two shows and it was like a variety show, you win a prize. This was in High School like 1990 - bro this was before Black Moon. You know what I’m saying? I didn’t even know these cats yet. Nobody even met nobody yet. I mean, again just being honest like, I wasn’t going like “Yo, I’m gonna be this big star.” I was just coming into the culture. The culture will kind of just direct you if you say you want to go that route. But we had two shows. Man, the first show we rocked it, we killed it. The prize for that show was $50. It just shows you how long ago that was. We got the opportunity to come to show number two. and the winning prize was $100. And needless to say, that my boy Chase, he ain’t show up to show number two. After that first $50, he was like this is not it. I thought it was going to be way more iller than this. But he was kind of a no show at that particular show and I ended up doing his verse and my verse. So that was the beginning of my solo career as MC Steele. I already knew Tek because we went to the same High School. But Tek wasn’t around me. There was no Boot Camp Clik… Nothing. It was MC Steele and I didn’t know Black Moon. I didn’t know none of those guys. That’s how I got on… after that, then all that other stuff started coming. All that P-N-C stuff and all that Smif-N-Wessun. Then we started producing ourselves after that.

VALIDATED: In February or this year, you and producer ES-K dropped the “Amerikkka’s Nightmare City III: City Under Siege” album. What has the response to the project been so far?

GENERAL STEELE: The project has been scaring the shit out of people. It’s very scary, I had people call me a racist. You know? I had people say “Yo Steele, say something positive for a change.” (Laughs)

VALIDATED: It speaks from our point of view though.

GENERAL STEELE: Yeah, that’s what the point is. Like I’m an artist, I rap. Like my job is to take the information and make it into a palatable form so you can listen to it while you smoke your reefer, or while you drive to work, or while you’re working out and stuff like that. My job isn’t to change your opinion. I’m not a cult leader or anything like that. This album was about a mirror. This album was holding a mirror up to America. America is guilty for a lot of stuff. Black, white, whatever your demographic setting is or whatever your religious setting is. Like you have to be accountable within your own culture. And when you have this diverse culture, like we’re in America. The United States of America. This is a crazy melting pot of cultures from across the world. You know? So, when a black person -- me as a black person who grew up in Brownsville, Brooklyn and I talk about racism like an Indian person might not be able to identify with it. Not from this aspect because when they came to America it wasn’t like that for them. Like these Asians can deal with it now because they are getting their asses kicked. You know what I’m saying? Or they are getting their asses kicked by mostly black people or mostly mentally ill people. So, they’re not even feeling the shit that I felt coming up. They aren’t feeling the hardcore systematic racism that I had to grow up with. As a four-year-old, or an eight year old, as a 12 year old or a 21 year old. Stuff like that. So just holding up the mirror to America. You know? The policies, the politicians, the so called leaders. Let’s take a look at this. You know? General Steele didn’t create this, I made the background music for it. You know? So yeah, It’s a lot of truth in there. And it’s a lot of cynicism and sarcasm. But it’s based on what is in front of us and the things we do not wish to talk about. You know?

VALIDATED: We can talk about killing each other, we can talk about robbing each other, we can talk about all of that but the minute we put the mirror up, like you said, they want to criticize us for doing so.

GENERAL STEELE: That’s a hardcore pill for me because I just had that conversation with somebody the other day. Somebody reviewed my album the other day and was like we heard this, we already know this. And I saw that on Twitter that I’m paraphrasing. Crazy but that was the vibe. So, when I saw that like for me man, it’s kind of difficult because it’s like you having to build. Like certain things you have to build and you have to construct it. Other things you say it one time and it takes. So, I’m glad that you’re pointing that out and all because that’s one thing that we have to suffer from especially being black and Latino brothers and sisters out here growing up in the United States of America, in New York City. In all these urban communities because the conversation that we’re restricted to is like these one-liners, like “It is what it is, Yo.” or “Ima do me, Yo.” or “I’m gonna get mines.” Like once we start getting in between those lines and we start like defining what we mean when we say “It is what it is.” When we start defining that people go “Yo, I don’t want to hear that fam.” You know what I'm saying? Or “Yo, that’s too much.” or “You think too much.” or “You’re doing too much.”, or whatever the case may be. This is why I stay to myself. When I’m not with Smokee (Tek), I don’t really like mingling with too many people. I don’t like getting into these superficial conversations. And I think that in Hip-Hop, you got to be careful because we have banged on the ‘90s and we have banged on the ‘80s. And we got to the part where dudes start getting the money and then we stop doing the knowledge of ourselves and the knowledge of our culture. So, when someone says that, it’s sad because they don’t want to hear about culture. They don’t want to hear about the knowledge. They just want to sit in the party and get in the pool and all that with everybody else. But they don’t want to remember the blood, sweat, and tears. They don’t want to remember that the South Bronx looked like Germany in World War II. You know what I’m saying? They don’t want to realize that you couldn’t go to downtown Brooklyn before gentrification. You couldn’t even walk down there. You wasn’t jogging, you wasn’t taking no dog to walks, none of that. So now you have to go through this chamber but how do you get through this chamber if you don’t have some type of strong continents. If you don’t have some type of thing when you going or you don’t have the mission to do better or make it better. So, if you shut me down, because I’m talking about some smart shit. I’m too egghead for you, I’m talking about the plight of black men. Black men getting murdered in the streets by police or women getting left and forgotten about. If that bothers you, then pardon my French, man fuck you, Yo.

VALIDATED: Word up.

GENERAL STEELE: I feel like if I can’t talk to you then, I don’t want to talk to you. This is not for you. Maybe perhaps one day, one of your friends will say “No, you gotta listen. Just pay attention, you might hear something.” Other than that, Yo I’m not making no songs for girls that are dancing on poles. I’m not making no songs for you niggas who go out and do drive-bys for your ops. I’m not making no songs for y’all to go in the club and be like hey let’s pop bottles. Yo, I drink Hennessy, I smoke weed, I love women. But I don’t need no music to inspire me to do that. The music is the backdrop for what we already do. So hopefully the music will become something that’s more organic. The message will become something that’s more organic than when you have these people go “Well you know, I kind of heard all that already. I mean when the Black Panthers were around they did all that and that didn’t work so what else you got Steele? (Laughs)

VALIDATED: I feel this album is very much needed in today’s climate. It’s the soundtrack to the real-life drama that we’re seeing play out in front of us.

GENERAL STEELE: Yes Sir, absolutely. I mean this album was conceived during the pandemic… Part three. Part two was consumed during when we had a black President. You know? Just because we had a black President don’t mean everything was hunky dory. Get it, hunky dory, black president?

VALIDATED: (Laughs)

GENERAL STEELE: See If I was a battle rapper, that would have been dope. ‘Cause, come on. No disrespect to Obama but son, you run the corporations so there’s only so much we can really get there.

VALIDATED: Right.

GENERAL STEELE: You feel me? I think that it’s sad because I got knowledge of myself and my community and my people and stuff like that. And I’m a student of life. Like I try not to hold that above people. I always try to think that, like hip-hop is one of the best ways that we can communicate. hip-hop is the only language that speaks every language. You feel me? Hip-hop speaks Spanish, it speaks French, it speaks German, it speaks Dutch, it speaks Swahili. Only hip-hop does that bro. Only hip-hop is the one that gets its ass kicked when it comes to the Oscars or when it comes to the Emmys. Or when it comes to everything that we feed, they give us the dookie end of the stick. And I think that’s part of what I would like to call the Jesus cough. Like Jesus mingled with the homies. You know what I’m saying? That’s one of the prophet's praises we be upon. You hanging out with the homies. You ain’t in the chapels. You ain’t over there with the Reverend because the Reverend got chains, iced out, and all that. Jesus wore cloths and sandals. When I’m out here and I’m talking about Timbs and hoods, I’m out here with the poor people. I’m out here with the people on the street. We’re trying to find out what’s the word, what’s the temperature. You know? And when you get into the industry you gotta be careful because sometimes you can lose yourself there trying to continuously feed people who have no love or no affirmation for that or no concern for that whatsoever. They just want to be entertained. Like white America, you’re receiving that? Because, because where we’re at, that’s really happening. That’s going down for real. So, it’s like it gets convenient with some people who want to separate reality from creativity and then when it comes down to it -- you going -- the President is a nutcase. You’re going, you’re a hater. You’re racist. It’s hilarious to me, I love it. Because I know where I’m at. A great man named Don King said “Yo, only in America.” Hmmm.

VALIDATED: Some people would argue that hip-hop is good and some people say it’s dead but where do you feel hip-hop is today?

GENERAL STEELE: I think hip-hop is great. Like I said hip-hop, at one point, we had a hip-hop ambassador in the UN. You know what I’m saying? Because you got people coming from different lands that are scattered bro. So for me man it’s to break the barrier because hip-hop has allowed me, a dude that grew up in Brownsville to get on the plane and go to Germany. To get on the plane and go to Brazil, Colombia. To get on the plane and to go to California. You know what I’m saying? To go… this about to sound corny what I’m about to say “To go where no man has gone before.” (Laughs)

VALIDATED: (Laughs)

GENERAL STEELE: The artists, the rappers, sometimes the actors as well. We become the messengers, we become the people who can show you the layout of what it’s going to look like. And I think that hip-hop is extremely important. I think that it bridges gaps. Not only does it bridge gaps through cultures and religions, it bridges gaps through the ages. It brings generations together. Mom and Pops, I ain’t talking about going to clubs with your moms. Not the ratchet version but that’s cool too. I think that we can do a lot with hip-hop. And I think that we have only scratched the surface.

VALIDATED: But do you think the younger generation can carry the torch and push hip-hop culture forward?

GENERAL STEELE: I think the younger generation has been given a big bag to carry. And I think the older generation needs to stop trying to dress like the younger generation and maybe they can get a little bit more respect. Like for me, I try to sit in my gentleman seat. Like I’m from Brooklyn all day long. But I’m not fittin’ to rhyme like the Brooklyn drill cats. You know what I’m saying? I might rhyme with you but I’m going to rhyme the General Steele way, the Smif-N-Wessun way. So we gotta be able to keep those divisions within what we do because as a young man… me coming up, I don’t think the elders really respected how we was coming up. And I don’t think they was giving up any gems or any of that stuff. They couldn’t wait for that… I mean me and Tek came out rapping about weed and beating people up. The old cats are like this isn’t hip-hop. Hip-hop is love, peace, and happiness.

VALIDATED: True.

GENERAL STEELE: Having fun and we beat people up, get money, cars, fashion, dance and all that stuff. So you bring the life to the party. And I think that if you have - we’re given some patience man. I do believe the potential is there. That’s just me. I believe that it’s there and I think that any one of these young brothers or sisters are looking up to the elders to give them some proper jewels. And sometimes the elders fall short. Sometimes the elders are still in the party. Sometimes the elder is a dude that just came home. You gotta think about dudes like 50 Cent. 50 Cent came in this, he came in this thing with his guns out. He ain’t coming in here trying to teach nobody nothing. He came up with his guns out. Now he’s a mogul. Now he’s in the Forbes. You feel me? I mean Jay-Z he was born in, he lived in Marcy. This guy’s on the Forbes Magazine. He has enough money, he has Michael Jackson money. He has money to buy an artist, rights and given them back to the family. You tell me what record label was doing that? Right now ain’t nobody doing that except for dudes in hip-hop. And if that is, then they aren’t talking about it. Because that’s talking about real genuine shit. If you respect DMX and you respect Shaq, or you respect Rob. Then you know that it’s not supposed to go down like that. These are guys that shit should be in the museums. Nas shouldn’t have the only stuff in the museum. Pac shouldn’t have the only stuff in the museums. It’s mad stuff that has value and there are people who are gatekeepers who are sitting at this helm and they’re making the decisions of what should go and what should not go.

VALIDATED: It’s crazy because back then you had the Jaz-O’s that grabbed Jay-Z to throw him under the wing.

GENERAL STEELE: Right.

VALIDATED: Today we got the trap, or whatever other music that’s not what we grew up with. So, who is taking these youngins under their wing? How do we change that?

GENERAL STEELE: It’s like if you’re not with the game, it’s like nobody is helping. We have now turned into something else. Remember there was a point in hip-hop where people started going “I don’t even listen to rap”. You know what I mean? And then, all of a sudden this other way just came in and I don’t think it was the rap that got us more involved in rap. As it was just a lifestyle of what people were doing in Chicago, what people were doing in Detroit. We was like “Wow, and who’s doing it? Oh, It’s the little guys.” The younger cats are doing it because the older cats is. You gotta think, these mofos done did so much that they probably still in the joint. So when they come home, they thinking that they going to get a bag. Instead of coming home and going “Yo little homie listen what I got for you”. Let me drop these on you. Some cats got that respect. You know what I mean? And I think that they still doing that in Cali, in the bay area. But everywhere else, like hip-hop is also dangerous because it would steal your mind and make you become that which you loathe. You have to be very careful of that.

VALIDATED: To get back to the album, “Amerikkka’s Nightmare City III: City Under Siege”, what else can you tell us about it?

GENERAL STEELE: I think to give up is what the loser want us to do, when I think about that. So, I think that the elders need to make better strides, you know? Like the last song I did, the “Amerikkka’s Nightmare”, I got some legendary guys on my projects. I tried to either create new legends or give, how you say, the credit to the ones that came before us. I was able to get Spice-1 on the song on my new album, “Amerikkka’s Nightmare lll: City Under Siege”. I ain’t going to lie man, when he told me he was gonna do it, yo I cried. Like real, real tears, I cried like a big old happy kid because that shit meant so much to me man. I think he was like probably the third feature I had. Like I don’t even need nobody else on this album. (Laughs) So as his younger God, I was so empowered by his cosign. Rock was on that same song so I ain’t even have Rock yet. So, once I had Spice on it, I was like yo I’m good fam. I don’t even like the politics to talk about none of this stuff so, Spice blessed me of being my elder. Spice did songs with Pac, that’s one of Oakland’s finest and he’s the originator of the America’s Nightmare, that whole campaign. So I literally got it from him. I jacked it from him and ran with it so it only made sense as a young cat growing up from that time to be able to have a conversation with this brother and go yo, the only thing that would’ve made that album over the top, if I got Chuck D on it. You got Chuck D and Spice-1 on one album, it’s a wrap, bro. I’ve been talking mega smack right now. (Laughs) So I think that the younger Gods, they want that love man and the older Gods gotta put some things aside and be able to find a platform where we can kick it. And everybody is not just being a big man on campus. You know what I’m saying? Nobody likes that. Everybody would’ve poked that guy.

VALIDATED: Other than Rockness and Spice-1, which other artists are featured on the project?

GENERAL STEELE: I got Napoleon da Legend, I got Ruste Juxx. Ruste Juxx is my favorite Boot Camp member right now. I got my man Louie Skaggs, Shabaam Sahdeeq. (Laughs) That's my guy, I love that guy. Who else I got? I got my PNC Tek, I got the Outlawz, E.D.I. Mean, Young Noble, I got Jahdan Blakkamoore. Who else? Who am I forgetting? Oh, I got my overseas connection, Ali 45 Scientific. Iron Braids from London, UK side. So, I was really selective with the people who I wanted on the track. I had a longer list, but I knew I had like time constraints and certain things. Like certain songs I had maybe like ten guys. Like these ten guys might can fit on here. And I had the pick of it. Really splice it and cut it up. And I’m glad and I’m grateful for the way it came out.

VALIDATED: That song is actually my favorite off that album, “Amerikkka’s Nightmare”.

GENERAL STEELE: (Laughs) Man, I got that song done, I felt like the man. Because Rock is a bad dude. You know what I’m saying? And having him on those joints that make him do his Rockness… I’m like Yes, and then putting him on a joint with an OG. Like you can’t just throw anyone on these types of joints. You know what I mean? But we got a whole lot of people that could have fit that bill but when you get the ones… It’s like yeah you gotta make that mark. You gotta put that certified stamp on it.

VALIDATED: What’s your favorite record off the album?

GENERAL STEELE: Damn man, I don’t know man. Like for me it was work. It was so hard, like I had days when I was on the floor crying, pounding on the concrete. I don’t know, I wanted to put it out in 2019. The industry was shut down. Like I had things ready. You know? So, when Smif-N-Wessun popped out and they was celebrating the 25th anniversary, I’m like alright so I’m gonna work on “Amerikkka’s Nightmare'' and I’m gonna get that done. But when the pandemic hit it was like alright, what are you really gonna do? You know? So, it was still timely. It still was right there. Right in my face I think doing the songs, I grew to love different songs. I love “Genocide” because of what it’s saying and because of Jahdan Blakkamoore. I love the fact that I got Jahdan Blakkamoore. We went from “Sound Bwoy” to Genocide. And I like the fact that we can grow together, collectively. But I think probably my favorite joint is “Amerikkka’s Nightmare” because of Rock and Spice-1. I’d been trying to get Spice on since “Amerikkka’s Nightmare II”. And just to get that was an honor. Yeah, that was probably one of my favorite joints. But there’s so many different and powerful joints. Like I would have to literally - I be scared to listen to it sometimes myself because it’s like damn, who is that guy? Who is he, why is he, what’s going on? You know? But it’s real, it’s high-powered things on there. I like, “Only God Could Judge Me”, because it allows me the opportunity to express the story through a different way that people are not used to. I’m still on the fence and there’s so many different, too many different gems on there.

VALIDATED: You’ve dropped the visuals for a couple of songs off the album. What made you choose “James Bond” as the first video?

GENERAL STEELE: Honestly, “James Bond” makes me think about my pops. Like my father had the whole James Bond collection on VHS. This is in the 60s and 70s. And I always thought of James Bond as the smooth cat. He was always this white cat who is a spy, he gets away with bloody murder and he always gets the girl. So, I thought about this spy, this espionage and all that type of vibe. And I was thinking about our government. You know, our government, CIA, FBI, all these shadow flies on the wall ass cats. And that would be interesting to kind of play around with that dynamic. I wanted to do some real creepy stuff, but I wanted to be conscious of keeping it creative. And I didn’t want to draw stories in people’s minds and have them going like Steele is trying to take over the government and all of that. I’m not trying to do that. Like I’ll tell you, this is a creative way to compare James Bond, this international spy to like playfully just compare it to the American government. It’s a freakin’ layout. And you can probably relate to me on this one, that was one of the songs with just me on it. If it was my choice, I would have picked one that had some with the bros on it but I had to go with the timely version. I was like “Yo, you know what?” I think it’s always best for an artist to kind of come out and present himself without having all these features and stuff like that. So, like yo, James Bond is perfect because I’m just rhyming. I’m just on beat, you know? And, prior to that, you hadn’t heard me since “The All”. And so I’m like yeah this would be good to kind of dust off with.

VALIDATED: So, what’s next for General Steele?

GENERAL STEELE: General Steele has a lot to do man. You know rockin’ out with my PNC of course. There’s a new movement that’s out - “Culture Pushaz”. It’s not new but it’s under new management I should say. And it has some powerful individuals in there who are trying to get in front of the game and do what we’ve been talking about in this interview. So we’re trying to promote each other better. As far as me and Tek, we’re about to go back in the studio and work on our eighth album. We're still promoting our solo projects. Tek has a few things in the works but I’ll let him basically break that down for you guys. As far as me, when you see me like I have, I got a hashtag GST5000. That’s General Steele 5000. Like when back in the day we used to have this saying, we’d say I be 5000. For me, I want to get the fuck out of here. I ain’t gonna lie. Like I don’t want to sit here and play games and rap with guys for the rest of my life. I’m on that Nasir Jones shit. I’m about to be half of a century. So, I don’t have time to play like I’m trying to get... what I’m gonna do is sit back and create my music. Finish writing these three books I’m working on right now. A poetry book, a cookbook and the story of the Boot Camp Clik. You know what I mean? So, in no order whatsoever but these are things that I really believe in my heart. And I want to just continue to put things out that the people can use later on and whenever. Whenever they can use them like... other than that, just create dope music. You're gonna see, you’re gonna hear some more music coming out of course. I also edit on the low. A lot of people don’t know I edit. Videos and music and documentaries and stuff like that. So you might see my name on some credits doing some editing and stuff. And so with the books and the editing and also I do mentorships. So, I’m just trying to be active in the hood and make sure I can be proactive wherever I’m needed. Wherever General Steele is needed, you’re gonna see me proper now. That is a fact.

VALIDATED: What’s your social media contacts and website?

GENERAL STEELE: The Instagram contacts are @GeneralSteele on Instagram, if the E ain’t at the end, it ain’t me. You got somebody else. @RealSmifNWessun, that’s how you can follow up on Tek and Steele. If you want to go to the website, you can either go to BucktownUSA.com or SmifNWessun.com and find out what’s going on with Tek and I. We about to open up since the US is opening up a little bit so we got a couple of shows that’s coming up. We probably gonna be in a town near you hopefully.

VALIDATED: Any last words?
GENERAL STEELE: Mind yourself, stay healthy, wealthy, and wise. And if you get vaccinated, just do your homework on that. Don’t let people talk you out of your healthy decisions, it’s your healthy decisions. That’s on you. Live with it, grow with it and show improvement. Power to all people, everywhere man. Love is love.

Troy HendricksonNovember 12, 2021Comment