Back in the day we used to say people had foul mouths if they were phenomenal lyricist. The veteran rapper Yukmouth thought that would be a great conversation starter as an artist. To this very day after years in the Hip Hop game, he still turns head with a title that captures his talent very well. With his new release, Free At Last, he explores a depth most rappers couldn’t fathom with his analogies, word play and descriptive skills. The design of this man’s vocabulary is poetic and biblical. During our conversation, we were able to define the industry and him as an individual with music being his instrument of choice.

You’ve been in this industry for awhile so when people hear your name what do you think they usually associate you with?

Hella beef straight up man. Associate me with beef with Master P, beef with Too Short, beef with The Game and G-Unit, that’s first. Then they associate me with The Luniz, I Got Five On It, you know the big hit. So, between them two either the Beef King or the Five On It Man.

What do you want people to know you for instead of that?

A rapper that really spills his heart and guts on wax man -- not no dude that’s just talk you know talking or glorifying something because it’s a fad. It’s a lot of fad rappers that do things, a lot of people are trap stars because Jeezy did it then with his album, or a lot wore skinny jeans  and all that because the New Boyz did it with their album and so on and so on. Me, I stick to the script, I never change, I been the same dude since I came in the game. I’m real, I keep it 100 and what you see is what you get.

Image is everything, do you have a new thought process about how you present yourself and your music to the public verses when you first got into the game?

Ah yeah, definitely. You know my crew, we all took a page out each other book. I get fitted only when it’s time to get fitted and they stayed fitted everyday. So, it was a big fucking difference on everything.

Let’s talk a little bit about your music now. Many people associate the music industry as a suffocating element that hinders growth. With the title of your new work, Free At Last, are you hinting to that a little bit or are you basically analyzing something else ?

Nah, it’s basically hinting at that. I’m free, finally got my freedom from Rap-A-Lot, shout out to J. Prince [laughs]. Shout out to J. Prince for even letting me leave, it’s not easy to get out of a contract at Rap-A-Lot Records. Let it be told from an artist who was there. So it’s basically being free from Rap-A-Lot, free from Virgin Records, that was the first deal we had with The Luniz.

I need to know about an unforgettable moment in the studio that confirmed that you were going the right direction with this new project.

Man, you’re making me think while I’m driving. Shout out to my homie Stevie Joe and free my nigga Filthy Rich, them my livewire niggas and we did a song together and I actually recorded it on Ustream while niggas was writing they verses and shit before the song was even on the album so that created a buzz for the album because everybody was like, “Man, I wanna hear more and yaddy yaddy yaddy.” So I think that was one of the big moments while making the album.

So you’re known for doing some pretty wicked collaborations and most artists stay away from that because they don’t want to have a situation where somebody outshines them. So I’m trying to figure out how you hold your own especially with the people you put on your tracks. How do you pick the people you work with to do collabos?

First of all, I mean, I gotta really dig a nigga. I gotta really dig your music. I just don’t pick people to be on my album because this nigga is popping and he popping. Nah, it’s actually people I got a friendship with, a relationship with and they might actually be there at the right time or they in town and I say, “Ok let’s do a song together.” It’s shit like that. Truthfully, the songs I do is with people I know. People under the same umbrella, I know they cool, I know how they fuck with it.

The industry seems to be re-embracing the whole underground movement scene again for more creative freedom, do you have any thoughts about that?

Well, they taking a big page out the book of  Down South etiquette and the Bay Area. We are fans of them from the gate so that ain’t shit new to us. A lot of people seeking  independent labels right now because the game is fucked up. The big labels are handing out these 360 deals. A 360 deal is when a motherf*cker get a piece of everything. From merchandise, show money, if you acting, your sag card money, everything that comes across the table, from you as an artist the label gets a piece of it because records ain’t selling no more, so you know it’s kinda fucked up on that level. So everybody’s in the independent game right now, everybody got their own label either got jerked from distribution deals or did their homework.

When you heard the major issue surface such as the tragedy in Haiti, it seems society called upon the music industry, some people are tripping about this oil spill  and they’re waiting for hip hop artist and icons to stand up and help raise awareness about that. Do you think that’s cool in anyway and if so, what would you suggest they do?

Well, I think it’s good of course. Music heals, music heals everything shape, form or aspect. So we need some music, we need a soundtrack for the oil spill, poverty, the death of creativity and this bandwagon artistry. We need some people to really put up a fight for all the things going wrong in our society that are being ignored.

Do you have any endeavors that you’ve participated in to give back to your community ?

Basically, not really. What I basically do is try to help artists that I know. Independent artists coming into the game, I give them the game of the rap, the ins and outs. I do seminars and stuff like that, of what and what not to do. I just came back from doing a couple of seminars at a few music schools, so that’s when I give back, that’s how I give back. I’m doing something for the kids to use at the music schools to let them know what and what not to and how to come in the record game instead of coming blind folded, getting fucked  in the ass by these big record companies that don’t give a fuck about you. So that’s how I give back, I give game.

Money is funny for everybody out there, so as an artist and a business man, how are you holding on to your finances?

You just gotta maintain, basically. Shit that you use to do, you can’t do it no more, literally. Like I used to have three cars at one time and now that shit got lowered down to one car so shit, it’s is what it  is. I used to have  three cribs at once, my crib, the studio crib and another crib now it’s down to one crib so shit that you used to be able to do and ball out and do, you can’t do no more so you definitely gotta watch your money right now. It is what it is. You gotta downsize, that’s the key to surviving, downsizing. You know not doing all the wild action shit you used to do. Like you used to buy an everyday outfit but now it’s when you need it. You used to go to dinner everyday and now you have to start cooking.

What about music wise, do you have to downsize there in any kind of way?

Hell nah. You can’t water down greatness!

Is it possible for you to be a regular person after the amount of success that you’ve garnered over the years and is that something you’re even interested in?

Shit, I don’t wanna be [laughs]. You can stop your career, if you just literally kicked back and don’t fuck with it…I mean shit it is what it is, you’ll probably become an all end regular nigga but me, I’m still in the game, so people gonna see me putting out albums and touring, doing the shit that an artist do so they gonna keep on respecting that. So until I stop, that’s when I’ll  become regular and  all will end when I stop but I don’t plan on stopping no time soon so I don’t see that in my future.

That’s what I wanted to figure out,  do you think that maybe your career has come to a closing, you just wanna settle down with life or are you just  in it in it because you just love hip hop ? 

If Jay-Z is 44 or 43 or 42, whatever the fuck his real age is, if he 40 something and still fucking rapping and got the hottest raps out here, what the fuck! Hell nah, I’ma keep it pushing.

Yeah, that’s a good thing, because when most people think about rappers, they say you have a time limit or an expiration date. So we’re seeing that some of the older rappers that started earlier in the game are still sticking around and producing quality music and that train of thought is shifting…

That’s the rap game, you’ve got Stevie Wonder still touring and packing out shows. Why is it that we expect LL Cool J to give it up or Doug E. Fresh. They are still doing it major and people pay to see them.

I have some questions from a few of our readers. One of our readers would like to know if you have any unreleased song with Tupac?

Numskull do, not me. When they did the Thug Nation, the One Nation Tupac album, I was locked in L.A County for some lil bullshit so Numskull was in the studio and was able to get on the One Nation album so I don’t know when that is coming out.

Now your new album, Free At Last, is a masterpiece?

Yeah, I just wanted to do what I do but with a little more flair to it. It’s the same old Yuck, just a lot more mature. Artists always say that but I’m going about things differently lyrically. I have a lot of issues I’m addressing from a different standpoint. I see life differently now. That’s what time does to you. That’s why music is such a phenomenal thing, it captures a certain moment in time and allows you to keep it on repeat. This album is real and it’s true. I’m being an artist here and expressing myself. I’m getting a lot of praise for it.

Listening to a lot of your lyrics it seems like I’m sitting in on a storytelling session.

Yeah, that’s what music should be like. You shouldn’t be hearing instructions all of the time. We are supposed to be talking about real shit that happens in life. Stuff people can relate to. Stop telling me how to do a dance and make me remember some shit, make me wanna get off the couch and do some shit. Lets talk about life and stop taking the easy way out lyrically. Folks riding beats with no skills. Man respect the beat and put real content on it.

You surely do that on this project.

Thank you man and I put more heat on all my other projects coming out. Well, basically I got the new album Free At Last, you got the joints from Thug Money, that’s me and Tivo. Right after that we got The Regime album, that’s my clique, me, Tech N9ne and others right after the Thug Lords album. You know I got my movie out called 5 K 1, where I play an assassin starring everybody’s favorite from The Wire. 

Congratulations, I didn’t know about that film. Did you want to talk about that experience?

Yeah, definitely. The movie is called 5 K 1. It’s basically a penal code that means snitch or informant. So it’s basically about a drug dealer who gets told on by a snitch so I get hired to execute, to be the exterminator, the hitman. Go get it!

- By Jessica LaShawn