Supernatural

Supernatural: Freestyle Extraordinaire

Rhyming on the spot, the world over

Interview by Adhimu Stewart aka Mindbender
Photography by Che Kothari

Rhyming is harder than most people think. Freestyling is even harder and is something even many credible mc’s can’t do well. Excelling at freestyle is a task so difficult, it’s beyond most people’s comprehension. Even though most people don’t understand how difficult it is, the ability to appreciate true freestyle rhyming seems universal. As the legendary freestyle veteran MC Supernatural will tell you, the art of freestyle is something that is appreciated the world over. With over fifteen years of perfomance experience and being unofficially declared the world record holder for longest freestyle performance at over nine hours, Supernatural knows every thing there is to know about the art. Getting the chance to hook up with him at the now infamous Rock The Bells stop in Toronto, our very own Mindbender got his thoughts on the status of the freestyle and various aspects of hip hop culture.

EW: What up, its Mindbender, sitting here with the one and only
SN: Supernatural, freestylist extraordinaire

EW: Excellent, Excellent. So how did you feel about the show that just happened?
SN: The show was incredible man. I mean for me to come here, get off the plane, find someone to spin records for me in like twenty minutes and go out and mash the place down is a really beautiful thing. The audience was really receptive which makes my job alot easier. I did have to win them over a little bit, which is good; it makes me work.

EW: You always have to win over the crowd in Toronto
SN: I love that though, because by the time I walked off they was in it, and that was the most important thing. I definitely left an impression, and they definitely left an impression on me. Tomorrow I’ll go back on the bus tomorrow bragging. The rest of the guys didn’t make it, but I’m glad I came.

EW: On the topic of the culture of hip hop and its evolution. You’ve been all around the world, what are your thoughts?
SN: Me personally, I’m just glad to see that hip hop has evolved from a small corner into a giant surface. It’s no longer just concentrated in one area; its global now. It went from local to city wide, to state wide and now global. And the fact that I can go to Amsterdam, England, West Africa, Thailand, and over the world and be able to communicate to people of different races through hip hop music, is a beautiful thing. For me, to go to Senegal, and learn a few pieces of their language and than go perform to 10,000 people; I couldn’t ask for anything better. That’s the beauty of hip hop and that’s how powerful hip hop is. No matter what they try to do to stop it or take away from it, it will continue to grow, because like I said its global now. It’s like a virus: it’s in commercials; it’s in cartoons. In every language that you could possibly imagine, there is somebody trying to rhyme, from Russia to Tokyo. That’s the beauty of hip hop, and I’m glad it’s evolved into a lucrative business, commercially and in the underground.

EW: What do you think of the state of the art of freestyling?
SN: I’ve watched it grow in a lot of ways, but I’ve also seen it to still be the lost art that its always been. Because freestyling is definitely a lost art. There’s not many people that can truly say they are authentic freestyle mcs. And that’s the complexity of being a freestyle mc. The art form itself, sometimes, I think is over glamorized. Sometimes I see these kids saying ‘I freestyle’. There’s a difference between writing a freestyle and freestyle being entirely free. It’s spontaneous words, you have to feel it and be on point. Yeah, it’s evolving into a beautiful platform, but at the same time it’s a lost art. And for all you young would be mcs out there, you just have be man enough to go find it and understand what its about.

EW: Another aspect of hip hop culture is fashion. In your opinion, what’s the evolution of the look of the bboy and bgirl?
SN: You would have to look back at the eighties to see when hip hop came into play (in fashion). At that point, the fashion statement (in hip hop) was about being fly. And it wasn’t about the labels, it was about how you put an outfit together, the colours you put together and how you rocked it. And the people really respected that back in the day. It was about being coordinated, clean and pressed. The Lee dungarees with the solid cuffs in them. And back in the days, if you were a bgirl, you had the suede pumas with fat laces, that pinstripe Lees, the sweatshirts with the iron on letters, and the door knocker earrings. My cousins had all that stuff, and I was definitely influenced by hip hop fashion. I remember working at McDonalds one year to get my first pair of pumas. Red suede pumas, and I thoughts I was freshest kid on the block. I had the fat laces on them, creased my little pants up, had the red sweatshirt with my first rap name on it, Dr. Rap. Real corny, real old school, but that was all part of hip hop fashion. Now it’s evolved into becoming glamorized. Its like hip hop couture or couture thugs, which is cool, but the beauty of it is going out and putting something together on a low budget. And that’s what hip hop was about, it wasn’t about having money back in the day. It was like, ‘let me match this with this and see if it works’. And that’s what made everybody unique. If you look back at Afrika Bambaataa and them, they were like punk almost. And Run DMC they were the real clean guys.

EW: Where do you think its going?
SN: Well if you look at fashion, everything that is new is old and whats old is new. Every eight or nine years it goes back to the old things. Look at the shelled toe adidas’. Adidas wouldn’t be what it is today if it weren’t for hip hop.

EW: So tell me the evolution of Supernatural…labels, videos, albums?
SN: The way I see my evolution at this point in my life; I’ve been in the game for a very very long time, I’ve traveled the world, I want to make a solid hit this year. That’s part of my evolution. The other part of my evolution is taking freestyling out to the masses where its never been seen before. I want to be on Jay Leno, Dave Letterman to expose the gift I have. My gift transcends races and colours, you don’t have to be black to understand what I’m doing. That’s the evolution of me.

I’m also evolving into the second phase of my life, which is my son. He’s sixteen right now, he’s an mc. We’re working on his record and honing his skills as well, which is like honing myself you know, because he’s an extension of me. I want to do a hip hop cartoon, I’m looking for animators to work with. And last but not least, my ultimate dream is to open a school to teach people about the art of rhyming. That’s something I really want to do in the near future after I retire. I think I’d be a more than adequate about freestyling and mc’ing in general because I’ve been doing it and studying it for so long. That’s the evolution of Supernat. And just trying to keep hip hop alive and get it back to the essence cause it’s truly lost. No disrespect to the cats that have it right now, but the message is that they have to change. They’re making the music boring. So everybody out there that’s a real mc and really loves this art form: stay true to it and magnify it every time you get a chance, that’s really the best thing I can tell you to close it out. Not only for my evolution, but for the evolution of the culture, stay fly, fresh, do the damn thing and don’t let anybody tell you that hip hop is dead, cause its not. Believe that.

As well, I just want to say big up to DO because he’s a class act. Here’s the beauty of hip hop again. After I broke the record, I went on to Myspace and he was gentleman enough to hit me up with a message that was along the lines of ‘Peace supernatural, this is DO from Canada the former holder of the record, and I just want to say it was an honour to have my record broken by someone that I look up to as a freestyle mc’. And he said ‘Just when you thought Kobe had it locked, Jordan returns to the game’ and he told me to enjoy the record. Big up man, and look forward to linking up with you soon.