Published: Monday - October 16, 2006
Words by Miles Bennett
Termanology (Photo: St. Records)
It's becoming increasingly hard to bypass Termanology. A staple on websites for some time, his buzz recently spread to print with pieces in XXL magazine and The Source.
And that's only the beginning. Term's DJ Premier-produced single, "Watch How It Go Down," currently has the underground buzzing and just may spill over to the mainstream once its remix, featuring Papoose and M.O.P, hits the streets. His forthcoming mixtape, Hood Politics IV, should further solidify him as a force to be reckoned with. Just watch how it go down!
Ballerstatus.com: You're from Lawrence, Mass. What's the hip-hop scene like over there?
Termanology: It's cool. I mean, there's nowhere to go with it. There's no labels. There's no money. There's not really much of a scene, but cats come through here and there. Styles P will come through and do a show, Dipset will come through and do a show. There's a lot of Reggaeton sh-- 'cause it's like a 95% Hispanic community, so you gon see more like Don Omar and sh-- like that.
Ballerstatus.com: A lot of people say they're tired of gun talk. Your music definitely has gun references, what in your music is gonna make people embrace it rather than brush it off 'cause they're tired of hearing that type of music?
Termanology: As far as the gun thing goes, any rapper that's from the hood is gonna talk about guns, 'cause you've definitely ran into one before. You were at a party before when somebody pulled one out, your man carries one. You see it a lot. If you see it, you're gonna rap about it. I think gun references ain't never gonna die. I know what a lot of critics are saying as far as cats just come through and spitting the same old sh--. That is the worst when n----s is like, "...I'm the most thug dude." I think people are definitely sick and tired of hearing that. I try to stay away from the freestyle raps 'cause I've done it for so long. I try to do joints with concepts now like how I did on the Premo joint. It was like, "watch how it go down." You know, I still talked about guns. But I was saying, watch how it go down with the guns rather than just be like, "yo, I carry a gun." I guess that's the way I'm gonna handle it, just keep trying to be creative, try to reinvent the sh-- instead of being the same old run of the mil punchline rapper.
Ballerstatus.com: Since we're talking about "Watch How It Go Down," how did the collaboration with DJ Premier come about?
Termanology: I got a lot of respect for him. I've been seeing him around for years. I seen him in 2003. I was in his video; that was the first time I met him and I just spit him a whole bunch of verses back to back and he thought I was nice, but nothing really came of it because he's DJ Premier. I was just a cat that spitting a verse. But as time goes on, I see him a lot and I keep asking, "Yo, Preme what's good?" And he's telling me to be patient. 2006 came about. It was like January, February and he called me up on the phone with Statik Selektah, they played me the beat and they were like, "What's up, you like it? If you like it, it's yours." It was just ill being in the same booth as Illmatic was recorded in. Ready To Die was recorded there. Reasonable Doubt was recorded there. All the Gangstarr albums were recorded there. There's so much history, you walk into the booth and you feel the aura.
Ballerstatus.com: There are definitely more and more people aware of Termanology. How would you rate your buzz?
Termanology: I know on the internet I'm going nuts right now. I'm like on about every site, popping here and there. I'm thankful for a lot of cats. I know my manager really helps me out and he got a strong team behind him of cats behind that's helping him. I got my little people that I got. Statik got his people. It's poppin' on the internet. I know on the mixtapes I'm popping 'cause I'm on like at least 200 of them. And with radio, I got about 100 spins with "Watch How It Go Down." That's pretty good considering I ain't got a deal. It's picking up. The magazine buzz is picking up.
Ballerstatus.com: What's your relationship with Statik Selektah, because every time you drop something his logo is on it. What's the affiliation?
Termanology: We just try to help each other. I got my label, it's St. Records and then Statik got his label, the Show Off imprint he's trying to push. So, when it came time to push the Out The Gate album, he was like, "why don't we do it together. We'll be a stronger force." He jumped aboard and helped me out with the marketing and therefore I attached his name to everything that I was doing and he helps me a lot as far as getting my records played and introducing me to a lot of people and you know it's much more than that. We're just kinda rolling together. We're all just trying to blow up.
Ballerstatus.com: There hasn't been a new prominent Latino rapper since Big Pun, why do you think that is?
Termanology: I don't know what it is, truthfully. Probably just a lack of cats knowing the game and knowing what you gotta do to get in the game, 'cause there's mad nasty rappers coming up. It's just a lack of making the right tracks and convincing these label n----s. But, there's a lot of cats that are Puerto Rican and Dominican and the world doesn't even notice it. Fabolous, he's Dominican. AZ, he's Dominican. Jim Jones is half Puerto Rican. Lloyd Banks is half Puerto Rican. You know, I'm half Puerto Rican. Joell Ortiz is Puerto Rican. Tru Life is Puerto Rican. There's a lot of n----s doing they thing, but if it ain't Joe and Pun, n----s just ain't paying attention like that. They just kinda look at you like another guy. Pun took it to the new level with the whole Spanish sh--, dancing around and really speaking Spanish and really repping Boriqua all the time. I think it's gonna take another cat to do it like that for anybody to really look at it like he's the new spokesperson.
Ballerstatus.com: Word is The Game heard your music and liked it, what happened with that?
Termanology: I'm not sure exactly if he liked it 'cause I never spoke to him again. He hit us up after Unsigned Hype. We went to Sony Studios. He was over there chillin' with Cool & Dre, Fabulous and a couple of cats. That was in like October or November of '05.
So I went over there, I gave him my little demo package. And he was real cool. He let us kick it, sit around, watching him do a couple of tracks. We stayed there until 5, 6 in the morning just blowing down L's and listening to the new sh-- he was doing with Cool & Dre. It was quite an experience 'cause I look up to Game 'cause he's a young cat just like myself and he just came out of nowhere and blew the f--- up. So, I'm definitely trying to follow in his footsteps and blow up too.
Ballerstatus.com: So what do you think is getting in the way of you and a deal, how close do you think you are?
Termanology: I think I'm close. It's really a roll of the dice. These labels are scared to put money on you 'cause they lose money a lot. They invest all this gwop and these rap dudes don't give them the right record or they're f---ing up, they're not showing up for whatever reason they're supposed to be showing up for. Sometimes they don't even know how to market the artists. It's not the artists' fault. They'll lose money, so they ain't even willing the try. Especially where I'm from, there's never really been any rappers to really blow up. I mean Krumb[snatcha], he was really doing his thing, the Almighty RSO, Zino and them cats were doing their thing, Ed OG and Mr. Lif, but basically there's never really been a rapper to come out, go double, triple platinum, put the whole state on his back... on the map like that. So, it's harder for them to envision somebody actually doing it, let alone a Puerto Rican and French rapper. They look at me like "What the f--- is you? We never even heard of you, n----." [laughs]
It's a triple roll of the dice, but what they're not seeing is, that's really gonna be the key. When you're coming from an untapped market, especially, New England is a very rich market. Boston has a lot of money. New Hampshire has a lot of money. So when you come out, this new guy and he's Latin and he's different and it's an untapped market, you might just f--- around and go platinum right over here.
Features Slim (of 112): Hi Haters What else do you want from Slim? His prolific group 112 has sold over 20 million records worldwide, and with a bevy ... full story
Beyond Hip-Hop Game Review: Far Cry 2 Gone are Jack Carver, his Hawaiian shirt, and the trigens from the first installment of "Far Cry," but in comes spine ... full story
Digg It
Del.icio.us
