Inkstarzz.com: NY Oil Interview

In a quest to prove that hip-hop is still as strong as it has ever been,
Inkstarzz linked up with one of the hottest emcees that has a
meaning to what he spits. Straight from New York, NYOil is showing
proof that hip-hop is alive and the heart will continue to beat.

Some may consider him controversial, but all have considered him
gifted. With songs like "Yall should all get lynched" and "You're a
queen", soon the rest of the world will see that he is a force to be
reckoned with.

So open your mind and experience real talk with Inkstarzz as we get
NYOil at his finest.......

Inkstarzz: What's up ?

NYOil: World famous interview, best thing ever, let's do it! (laughs)

Inkstarzz: (laughs) What's been going on with you?

NYOil: Aww man, just running around tryna come up real hard. Tryna really change the game and it looks like
its working.

Inkstarzz: I knowman, I see that Alright, for people that never heard of you, can you give us a little background
information on you?

NYOil: Well you know, like anybody else, one day I heard the boom and the bap, I heard that hip-hop don't
stop and it was for me. It sounded like something that I could do, something that I could deal with. I love this so
much, I not only wanted to be a part of it, I wanted to be it, a member of the club. That's all the background
that really matter. That's really it.

Inkstarzz: What is the meaning behind the name NYOil? Is there a meaning behind NYOil?

NYOil: It is in the sense that it means, literally, NY is for New York and Oil is that black gold that we go to war
for. To me the black man, woman and child is the black gold that I'm going for. Dire straits and when you
analyze my name, I can go on for days with what my name mean. Before all that, It meant "New York's Original
International lover". That was my name that I used to go under on the Internet when I was out there having a
good time, but as I got older, certain things just were not... well I didn't want to be about that no more, I wanted
it to be about something more important. So, the meaning changed, but it was like I just didn't need it. You
don't need all these other words all this "Original International lover" and all that. I don't need that. Just NYOil,

Inkstarzz: So how are you feeling about the state of Hip-hop right now?

NYOil: Well, you know we in the best of times and we in the worst of times. In many ways, everything is as it
should be. We have young kids taking on hip-hop, interpreting it in the way that they see it. It may not be the
way older heads want it to be, but older heads gotta be mindful of the fact that, when it comes to interpreting
things, it's not really [a way] to tell the next person how to interpret it. It's easy for them to say "Ooh hip-hop
sucks", but u the one who fucked it up. You gotta keep in mind that these kids don't have the guidance that
they're supposed to have. These cats not there for them and it's obvious that they don't have that guidance.
On the same token, when the student is ready, the teacher will come. In some cases, these younger cats may
need guidance, but they not prepared to get it because their mindset... it aint right, know what I'm sayin? So it's
a combination in that regard. On another level, I'm very encouraged because I feel, and I think justifiably so,
that I'm in the process of doing a job that I felt like I was put here to do. We [are] in the process of changing
music to bring about that new movement. I feel like, honestly, when I dropped "Yall should all get lynched" and
"You're a queen" and stuff like that..... The way I did it, the way I came at people so thorough, so different, for
the moment, that it... Even though there are a lot of people that are out here tryna build conscious and positive
music, there's something about those songs, about that movement, about NYOil as a character, that made it so
that people that felt that way was able to rally and start that process of change. So, I feel like that happened,
too. I'm excited about that and I'm tryna be a part of that.

Inkstarzz: OK you mentioned the song “Yall should all get lynched”, what has been the response to that song
from other artists?

NYOil: Well, it depends. If it's any artist that's on the song, I aint heard nothing from them cats. If you talk
about other artists, period, I get a lot of love from other artists. From house music legends like Ce Ce Rogers.
That brotha just contacted me! It's not somebody you just get to talk to.[I hear from] writers and children of
legends, Muhammad Ali's daughter reached out to me. She reached out and said "I love what you doing".
Older heads sayin "yo check them behind the red, black and the green" you know? Professor Griff reached out
to me and said "Yo, everywhere you walk, somebody's watching you and protecting you". When you get people
coming and saying stuff like that to you, it's just like, come on. You not worried about what fams or Lil flip flop
got to say or young Dodo got to say. They aint pressuring you at all. I don't care what they got to say. I got
those that are 100% just feeling me. People that needed to understand what I'm talking about, they get it. It's a
really good look.

Inkstarzz: Do you think artists should be looked at as role models?

NYOil: Yeah because they are. It's not about should, its about is. I think that we get too caught up in what
should be versus what is. What is, is that celebrities are the royalty of America. That's just how it is. Celebrities
represent the clearest example of success. They represent overt power. Celebrities also represent the art
type and what happens is, people identify on one level or another with the celebrity. So they're like "I'm like this
guy 50 cent, my personality is like someone who looks like he made it" so you got shorty living in the hood and
he see somebody that look like him, act like him to an extent or at least act like he like to act, who's making
millions of dollars. What could that dude possibly be other than a role model. So you gotta be the model, you
know what's I'm sayin? This is the role that you modeled yourself after. A lot of people running from s%!t so
bad, they don't really think like "dude what is this?" like " No, I aint your role model" yes you are my G! Then it's
like some of these dudes are so fucking selfish that they'll put that on the parents. They'll put on the parents
that parents [were] to monitor some s%!t that's outside of the realm of what a parent is to do. If you're a parent,
and I got three kids; my oldest is 18 and my youngest is 14. Now here it is I'm a stay-at-home dad because I
wrote from home. Except for right now, cus I'm in Vegas so I aint there. For the most part, I'm always with my
kids and for most of their lives, or at least the last four years I've been with them for sure almost all the time.
Even in that, there's so much time that they spend outside of my influence. They have to socialize with other
kids and what ends up happening is that the entertainment business-television, radio, the domain that
entertainers rule, dictates what the social norms are. As long as they do that, then yes they're role models.
Your child gotta fit in, a human being is a social animal. I aint like you go be on some just doin you, " I just do
me", you full of s%!t! You don't do you! You do what's rockin right now and if this is what's rockin, then that's
what you gon do.

Inkstarzz: I feel you, so in other words, they gotta play their part and man up to it

NYOil: That's the bottom line-do what you supposed to do. Be a f*%kin man, stop being a bitch about it. You
got this great opportunity that a motherf%&*er would slit your throat for and you gon carry it like it's some
burden and s%!t. Like s%!t really that hard for you. Even the actor, they try to do it too, f*%kin bastards. It's
so sickening to listen to that s%!t. I'm sure you heard this in the logic too, " well everybody expect a rapper to
do so much more. They always put so much on us, but you don't say that to Arnold Schwarzenegger!" They
always use Arnold Schwarzenegger, too and which is like the worst example. The funny thing is, Arnold
Schwarzenegger is a fucking actor. You know he's an actor. When he finishes his movie, you know what he
does? He doesn't go around the country in the terminator outfit shooting Motherf$@%ers to show that you
should go watch the movie. You know what he does? He goes through with his regular s%!t. He's relaxing,
chillin, having a nice civilized interview with the interviewer, talking bout the movie that he ACTED in. When that
s%!t is done, he goes home and lives his life. You may see him at the club squeezing somebody's ass or
whatever, but hey guess what? Even if you use Arnold Schwarzenegger, this Motherf$@%er went on to be
THE GOVERNOR of California! So it's like, yo what are you talkin about? These dudes, rappers are on the hip-
hop s%!t 24/7. There's never a point where 50 Cent stops being 50 and addresses you as Curtis Jackson. It's
never a point where Ja Rule stops being Ja Rule and engages you as Jeffrey Atkins. This is not what happens.
Busta Rhymes don't hit you as Trevor Smith, he remains Busta Rhymes. Through the whole experience as
Busta Rhymes, you get Busta Rhymes, not Trevor Smith. It's just really some irresponsible s%!t. Some real, I
don't even understand s%!t.

Inkstarzz: How are you feeling about the presidential election?

NYOil: Well you know it's funny cus I'm in Vegas right now at a national Hip-Hop political convention, so I'm
here to build on those type of topics. The fact of the matter is, Of course I'm excited that there is a possibility
that we may live to see in our lifetime, the first black president of the United States. You pray for that because
you pray for the children, that they can see a thing like that and know that it happened. In the same token, I'm
a cynic and I'm I will remain cynical so that I don't be on no hook, line and sinker s%!t with Barack Obama. At
the end of the day, I never heard of this dude past two years ago. Really at the last Democratic National
Convention they had and when he spoke, that was the first time I had ever heard of son. "Bright young senator
from Illinois" and that just reminds me of the "Manchurian Candidate" a little bit. I personally would rather be
excited, vote for him, stand behind him because I'm feeling what he's doing, but never be so into him that I get
blind-sided if he aint what I think he is or hope he is.

Inkstarzz: Exactly, That was a good one! I know there are some artists that feel that the media has been giving
Obama negative attention. What are your thoughts on that?

NYOil: I think it's seeing... now this is negative without question, it's seeing the racism that people like myself
may have been trying to tell you about for years but you say it doesn't exist anymore. Like' "Oh it aint racist no
more. You can do whatever you want in this country", like son you not seeing that these Motherf$@%ers are
dirty out here. It's the type of racism that, to fight off Obama, they can't be so subtle. Their racism becomes a
lot clearer. You are seeing what they do to a race of people generally over the course of a year, over the
course of 10 years. You see how they been picking us apart always putting us in this bad light always making
us out to be this or always making us out to be that. Seeing that happen on a concentrated level against one
individual. Visualizing that racism, seeing it becomes very clear. It’s disturbing.

Inkstarzz: Did you watch the CNN program “Black in America”?

NYOil: I watched a little bit of it, not the whole thing. I did see some portions of it.

Inkstarzz: Do you think it was something that needed to be broadcasted on T.V. ?

NYOil: I think that its relevance is just another harbinger of the change that's coming in the world. I really truly
believe that artists like myself and other artists that have really been pushing consciousness and activism
have a weight in it because there's a stream of energy that exists. I couldn't tell you what it's called or how it
works, but it just gotta exist man. There's something out there that exists that artistic people tap in to, certain
people tap into and they start moving on it and when they tap into and start moving on it, it just seems like
more happens. I just think that CNN thing is the result of people tapping into a higher conscious or tapping into
this movement. It had to happen because of this movement so I think it's really relevant. The reason why I
think it's relevant is because, again as another indicator of how the barriers cause......that wasn't a real
flattering program. It lacked context. You talking about we black in America now, but yet you're not telling me
how did they come to this? It's like me going outside and I'm showing you these hookers in Las Vegas, "yo look
at these hookers, look at these hos", and I'm telling you how these hos got AIDS" and how these hos abused
and all this foul s%!t, but if I don't tell you how or if I don't go back and say " well this one was abused by her
father, that one was abused by an uncle, this one right here was abandoned, that one was put out on the
street, this one had to feed her kids cus the husband left her high and dry and she didn't have a skill set" and
I'm telling you these real s%!t where it turns out that it aint so much that these women were dirt bums, its really
the fact of the matter is that somebody let them down and now they're in this tough position that survival
dictates that they gotta do thing that.... maybe if they had better opportunities, they probably would never
chose that, but they gotta chose with the cards they've been dealt and they survived as they could. I just think
that CNN did not give that context being black in America should've started with a brief build on slavery. They
could've started from 1917 when J. Edgar Hoover made a concerted effort while he was with the justice
department to absolutely destroy black radical thinking, meaning if blacks that wanted to be equal or wanted to
have something of their own or some s%!t, that wanted to be more than somebody talking bout "yes sir!", "no
sir!", if you wanted to do any more than that, you were a black radical. So these dudes put agents in when
Marcus Garvey was doing the Black Star Line they had him locked up on some mail fraud s%!t. That's how
they locked up Marcus Garvey. He really actually did buy the boats that we needed to go to Africa. People up
here don't know that. They were jerking this dude so much! They were doing so much to Thwart him from
accomplishing this. They said "what the fuck is going on? Why were these dudes doing this to this dude?". J.
Edgar Hoover was making a concerted effort to keep them down, like "yo man them brotha are NOT making it".
It's kinda broad to have a discussion about where we are today, but you don't want to talk about the fact that
you're the person that put us in the position that we're in today.

Inkstarzz: Where do you see Hip-Hop 5-10 years from now?

NYOil: Well you know, the fate of question hangs on the hairs of.... it's like "The Lord of the Rings" kid! It's like,
I don't know! Myself and many other artist, we feel like Frodo and Samwise Gamgee tryna get this Motherf$@%
ing ring to this mountain and don't look down, you know what I'm sayin? We can get it or we can't, man. The
quest is..... if things continue in the fashion that they are, we're successful and to be honest, a lot of people
take issue with what I say because we have the belief that anybody doing something positive shouldn't expect
to be financially successful. The fact of the matter is, if I'm gon be respected, I believe that young brothas gotta
see I'm gettin that paper. Because they gotta know that being positive, doing this work, gains off top. So if I'm
able to do what needs to be done to create that success, if artists like myself makin it, we be our thing, people
are gonna flow the path of least resistance and follow suit. We'll have that renaissance, multi-talented people,
cultural emcees talking bout things of relevance; political, social kind of emcee bringing real issues to the table
and helping to elevate the conscious of the culture and the people worldwide. However, what may happen is
[that] you get an artist like Nas or one of these ones that are really corporate published who they place in to
subvert that movement. They could be a subversion and they use that to kind trivialize that movement, make it
happen faster because, you know, the music and everything goes around in a circle. Right now the circle is
coming back to the revolution. The revolutionary stuff is revolved around to be at that point again. So, what
was going on in the late 80's and early 90's seems to be about to happen again but what they're tryna do is,
they tryna cut that part of the circle out and get back to the bulls%!t. Artists like myself and other artists that's
tryna do that positive thing, we gotta work extra hard to put it down, man so that people can get the
opportunities and experiences that are supposed to be the natural way.

Inkstarzz: What was your mindset when going into the studio to work on Hood Treason? Was it what you
expected at the end?

NYOil: It's really better than I expected because initially, the CD was called "The Warm-up Album", because I
was just warming up. Like, I gotta get right. I gotta get my mind wrapped around doin an album by myself and
speaking on particular issues. I gotta translate this thought. I gotta translate what is developing into a
movement to songs. I gotta translate my anger to a song. I gotta translate my frustration to a song. I knew that
it was gonna be a problem, so that was the warm-up. Then, when I got the deal from Baby Grande to do these
two albums that Imma do with them, this one being one of them, they asked me to do a few new songs for it in a
week, like "hey could you do these new songs for us, in a week?" I was like, "Oh s%!t!". Wow, but I really
appreciate being able to be an emcee and being able to have this opportunity so, I complained for all of about
two days and then I got that joker done, you know what I'm sayin? Really my complaint was more for the fans,
because I was like "yo man! I’m not tryna put no bulls%!t out! I'm not tryna do that!". So don't put me in this
position where I'm puttin out bulls%!t, I don't do that. My fan base is wanting me to say certain things, wanting
me to build on certain things and you got me out here rushing to do songs. I'm not gon be as effective. The
fact of the matter is, I [do] this, so I was able to put a second CD together. What tripped me out is that most
people hit me up like, "Yo I love the second CD, the second CD is ridiculous!" I be like, "Word?", so, I'm happy.
I think that it's alright. I think that it's a pretty good album, I mean literally, I think it's a pretty good album, man. I
know it's better than pretty much anything that's out right now. I think that even in that, it doesn't really mean
much because I don't really think much of artists music right now, anyway. I think it's pretty good. I feel like
"Heavenly Sword", which is gonna be the next album, is gonna be incredible. It's gonna be one of them thing
were people be like " yo this dude is one of the best hip-hop artists ever". I'm so certain of that because the
way I'm gonna break so many molds, people are gonna be like, "yo this dude is a true artist”. I’m really gon
show cats what I'm capable of and I'm looking forward to doing "Heavenly Sword".

Inkstarzz: Any info you wanna put out for the fans to contact you?

NYOil: Well it's funny because my main website is nyoil.com and I'm in the process of working with some people
to develop a website that addresses what's next in entertainment and what's next for musicians in
entertainment, ya know, and How we will be able to distribute music and service fan bases because putting out
records aint it no more unless you outdoing yourself tryna put out records. I'm seeing it where you out here
running around tryna put out records and be this big star especially if you working for an independent label
and you not getting nowhere even though people love you, they love you music but no one is buying records
like that. Especially Indie artists records because they getting that s%!t for free off the net. So, when they not
seeing that you sold the records, promoters aint tryna take you on no tour. If they do, you gotta have
somebody sponsor you on that tour. It's just a whole bunch of difficulty that make it hard to have a solid career,
but I can tell you that I do believe that what I'm doing with NYOil.com is gonna be the most incredible thing that
people see from hip-hop in a long time. It's not just gonna be me, it's gonna be a lot of conscious, well I'd
rather say, cultural artists. Artists that represent this culture. They don't all have to be talking bout "the black
man, this!" ya know, it's just gonna be artists that, when you listen, you gonna be like "this Motherf$@%er
good!". If nothing else, you gonna say "yo I like what this dude is about and I wanna support that dude" or "I
wanna support that sister, I like what she about". There's that and, of course, anybody that wanna reach me
on a simpler note, they can reach me on my myspace page. It's myspace.com/nyoil. I'm always there unless
I'm out of town, like right now.

Inkstarzz: Alright man, I would like to thank you for doing the interview

NYOil: I appreciate it. I told you it was gonna be the best interview, right?(laughs)

Inkstarzz: Yep! And you kept your word! Thanks again.
Interview by: Sonnie V.

"Where the starzz come to shyne!"