It’s the mid 80s, and Mike Tyson is back in Brooklyn. Yet to fight Trevor Berbick and win the WBC Title, the fighter is taking some time out, kicking it with his boys outside a building in the spot where he grew up, Brownsville. He’s perched on a parked car when he’s approached by a scruffy kid.
“Yo, you gotta get off my mom’s car!” says the kid to the one of the scariest fighters on earth.
Tyson looks at him: “Come here, shorty,” he says.
“In my hood, it’s a demotion for somebody to send you to the store,” laughs Sean Price as he remembers his run-in with Tyson. “He took my Bon Ton potato chips [and] told me to go to the store for him – and I went! But he gave me $20 though. That was a lot back then…”
Price might be one of the grimiest, rawest MCs you’ll ever hear, but he loves stories. Not only about the time Tyson robbed him, but about everything from working with soulful, distinctly un-gutter producers like 9th Wonder (“You know what 9th do? He leave me the beat and get out the room!”) to the birth of his daughter, also named Sean. (His best babycare tip? “Do what your wife tell you and shut up! I’m dead serious. She the boss. You wanna get along, just do what she saying! That’s it. Makes for better sleep!”)
One wonders what Tyson would say if he found that his name graces Sean’s upcoming LP, Mic Tyson. “I don’t know [what he’d say]. I don’t care what he’d say, but if I see him before the album drops, I’ll tell him. We’ll see what he says!”
Sean Price occupies an odd position in the game. He’s one of the most respected MCs in rap, with several critically acclaimed solo records under his belt, an astounding group rep and one of the best records as a guest rapper in the game. It would be very difficult to find a hip-hop head who doesn’t respect him and his body of work. On the other hand, while he might not rock the Brokest Rapper tag anymore, he’s not exactly rolling in it. His dedication to ultra-hardcore street rap and his refusal to deviate from his aggressive, thundering flow has meant that while he’s kept a core audience, he’s not always drawn in new listeners. You can see this in the way he describes his new record: to put it bluntly, he won’t be altering his style one iota.
“I have no idea [what I’m doing different]. That’s for the people to decide!” he laughs. “Mic Tyson is really Mike Tyson – I’m here to fuck shit up. The game, people, everybody. Lyrically and physically if I have to! That’s what Mic Tyson is about: just fucking shit up. You don’t know what you’re gonna get with a Mic Tyson fight. You don’t know if you’re gonna get a good fight, if you’re gonna get knocked out. You don’t know if he gonna beat the shit outta somebody who got nothin’ to do with the fight…"
Read the full interview feature here:
Okayplayer - Sean Price
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