Although Access Immortal has only one album to his name, he's a well known name amongst the underground circuit. The Brooklyn native's debut album "Shades Of Reality" was a huge success, and although the album didn't garner the sales Access would have liked did however create a name for himself as a vicious emcee who could hold his own against some of hip hop's best. I spoke with him about the distribution problems with his first album, the misconception about labels and his brand new album "American Me".
Check out a Certified Hip Hop exclusive right here, the self titled joint from the new album "American Me" produced by Vanderslice. Ya'll are the first to hear this, bump the track read the interview. Enjoy! (Look up above the interview pic to play the track)
Thanks a lot for the interview, whats been happening with you Access?
I've just been working on getting this new album out there called American Me and trying to do some tours this year. Hopefully get out there to the people more. I understand American Me has been ready for release for some time, whats the situation with distributing this. Have you found the right deal?
We (meaning my label) are working on getting the right distribution deal for the album, but it's pretty much locked down, were just working all the details out as far as who's coming with the best offer as far as exposure.
I know the label was set up recently, what was the motivation for being involved in the setup of a brand new label & is there anyone else signed to Introspect Records?
The idea behind that was just being able to make your own moves and have your own plan with putting out the music. A lot of labels, major and indie included don't really give you a lot of freedom or priority as far as your release, so it's hard to really get noticed sometimes. As of right now, the only two artists signed to Introspect Records are myself and Medinah Starr but we got some others in the works soon
Whats it like for an underground artist trying to find the right deal in todays day and age?
It's hard, everybody is going to have something in their contract that you probably don't agree with but it is a business so the label has to get theirs too, their not just going to release your album and have you making money of it out of the good of their heart. I think being independent shows labels that you have the drive and ambition about making your career happen, no matter what and then maybe they'll want to get down with you when they feel like youre eating without them.
You told me once youve never seen your album in stores, how does that happen considering you were signed to Early Spotter Records?
I dunno (laughs), good question. Ive been to a lot of different states, probably at least 10 since the album came out and I always walked into the music stores and never saw Shades of Reality up in there. Unless it was a real known indie spot like Fat Beats in NYC, I just didn't know where them copies out there were at.
They must have shipped all the copies to Australia, Ive seen your album at a lot of stores down here!
Yeah (laughs) I think a lot of the copies went overseas.
So will we be able to see American Me in most stores, are you going to handle the distribution yourself this time?
This time it will be a lot easier to get your hands on a copy of this album, either in America and overseas. Any spots that the distribution doesn't stock, Ill personally stock them myself if I have copies of the album in my hand
What can we expect from American Me, how would you compare it to your debut Shades of Reality?
I would say the album is a growth of me as a person. I was going through a lot of different things when I was doing Shades of Reality, less grounded and just running around a lot. But I think I cooled it a bit and started focusing more so I think this second album is a more together effort and people will get a chance to hear that when the album comes out.
Who handled most of the production on the album, and is there any/many guest appearances on there?
The production is pretty split on the album between a lot of different names like Vanderslice, Ruckspin, Nathaniel Roberts and Nygh. Some of the guests I have are my label mate Medinah Starr as well as Skyzoo, Poison Pen & Reef The Lost Cauze.
Youre also working on an album with producer Lawz Spoken, when can we expect to see that finished and in stores?
I dunno, me and Lawz have been talking about it for a minute but American Me definitely needs to be out there for awhile first before me an him put out anything. But were definitely working on that and it's definitely going to be something ill between us.
No doubt, I forgot to even ask when American Me will be in stores. When can we cop that?
The date we got set right now is April 17th. Im trying to stick to that date and make it happen then as the official release. You should see some promotion for it in the next few weeks, putting the date out there and more info about the album.
You had production from well known cats like J-Zone, 7L, Vanderslice & Insight on your debut. How did that come about?
I knew Vanderslice for years, way before either of us started doing music so we came into doing that whole project together. As far as some of the others like J-Zone & Insight, Slice knew them and he hooked those up as well as my boy DJ Primetime on the Zone tip. With the 7L connect, we were looking for like 1 more banger to finish the album with and Next suggested that we get 7L to do a beat for it and he hooked it up
Shades Of Reality was of course your debut album, looking back is there anything you would have changed about the release?
I might have changed the order of some of the tracks on there and maybe took off one song and added a different one because there was stuff me and slice had recorded for the album that didn't make it because of space and time length.
I know youve got a bunch of unreleased material will we be seeing a lot of mixtapes from you in the near future?
I wanna lay off the mixtapes as far as putting a bunch of unreleased material on it for the near future. I'll probably put one out sooner or later but it will have new cuts on it and probably some actual freestyles and down the line, the unreleased joints if there's a demand for them they might end up coming out one day.
Its become almost a tradition now, for artists to release mixtapes a month or two before the album drops to get some hype. Will you be doing this?
Nah (laughs) I think artists personally oversaturate the market with their own material and after awhile no one is looking for your album because in between they've released 5 or 6 mixtapes with 20 new songs each on them, so who's gonna be waitin for an album when they just got like 5 cd's worth of new songs. I would put out a mixtape in a gap of official album material being released but there won't be one before the album drops.
Lets venture back into the past a little, why did you initially want to have a career in hip hop?
I was just always into how different the music was. I used to listen to the radio when i was real young and not know the artist or the name of a song but just have to record it on casette because it was hot to me and i wanted to be able to listen to it more. As i got older I became a DJ and did al ot of local mixtapes and wasalways writing rhymes on the side, then one day just picked up the mic and went for it because of the love I had for the culture
Coming out of Brooklyn, where such greats have came from & theres so much talent out there now. How did you get yourself noticed, what seperates you from countless other rappings doing their thing in Brooklyn let alone the whole of New York?
I think it's that Im just being myself and not trying to fall into whatever may be popular at the time. I think alot of New York artist have an identity crisis and want to be from New York but sound like their from the south because that's what's making noise right now and with me, I can only be myself. NY is so over saturated with artists though and to get noticed I just think you have to have talent and stay true to who you are as a person and an artist no matter what somebody around you is doing.
You mentioned NY artists trying to sound like they from the South, do you believe thats a contributing reason for why NY has lost so much of it's potency?
I think so. There was a time like back in 92-93 when it wasn't all about New York and it was on the West Coast with Snoop and Dre, but people from NY still sounded like they were from here and then it eventually came back this way when people like Nas, Wu-Tang & Black Moon dropped but the sounds and style was always here. Now the industry is telling the fans and artist what's hot so the artist want to run out and copy a fomula they think works, then come out and they can't sell records because they not being themselves.
Would you say some labels are to blame for this or you believe the artists are going that path themselves?
I think it's both. On one hand the labels want to act like if your not from the south, your not hot so they won't even pay attention to you but on the other hand the artists make the music, so why not just do your own thing and screw the label who dissin you, don't make music for the label. It's not like if the artist suddenly stopped catering to the label, all the execs in the office gonna get up and go in the booth and start spittin rhymes about sellin crack or their grills or how hard life is cutting checks and making money.
Jimmy Iovine rapping about pimpin hoes in 2010? (laughs)
(laughs) Might as well, the labels know about hip hop more then we do according to them.
Most artists are saying they barely bump new shit any more, how about you. Got any new albums in rotation or you stay bumping the old shit?
I listen to a lot of new stuff that comes out just to stay up on things but once Im done, I usually go back to the old stuff. I like the Sean P album a lot though and the last Fat Joe one because it's more street then his album with the Nlly collab on it and I listen to randon new songs I may hear it if I think it's something dope. But overall I don't know if everyone has the ability to just make a quality album anymore.
Aight well Access thanks again for the interview, Ill definitely be on the lookout for the new album. Any last messages for the readers?
I just want to tell people be on the lookout for 2 dope release from Introspect records this year. My album American Me and Medinah Starr's album titled Beyond Reazon and also releases this year from Karniege. Peace to Ruckspin, Lawz Spoken & Nygh and thanks for this interview fam.