March 31, 2004 @ 1:53 pm

Interview: Grafh - Is He Gearing Up To Take Over The Rap Game?

by: Mariel Concepcion

In a room full of VIBE execs, a young man with a NY Yankees fitted sat comfortably slumped on a leather chair behind a long wooden desk. 23-year-old Phillip Bernard, better knows as Grafh, was that young man and he's the latest addition to Epic Records through his own Black Hand Entertainment. He's k

VIBE Online writer Mariel Concepcion parlayed with the up-and-comer, and he sure had lots to sayÂ… Vibe Online: Tell me about your label, Black HandÂ… Grafh: Black Hand just ain't music. Black Hand was founded by Old G n#$&*s in a federal prison system back in the 50's and 60's. They came home and they spread out and went across different regions of the country. They started their own stuff and they all got their own people. Black Hand became respected throughout the whole United States, and the five fingers of the Black Hand represent each region of the country- the north, the west, the south, the east, and the Midwest. Basically, the Black Hand ain't just about music. We get money from all angles. We were the first n#$%*s to throw after-parties for the Tyson fights on the Vegas strip. Team in the Ruckus, I filmed it with Rockefella Films. I got a movie called Inside Out. We're doing big things. Now we got me. My name is Grafh ya'llÂ… bang! Vibe Online: What influenced your to do music? Grafh: It was n#$%*s in the streets saying I was hot. So I just started pushing for this s*&t and it happened. I realized I was blessed so I quit school. I was in college for three years as a finance major. St. John's University was f&%*ing great, man. I was only willing to drop out because of financial situations at home. I was blessed with this deal cause I was like a year and change just going unsigned, just back to the block getting money again, and I didn't want to do that. I tell motherf@#$%&s now save that bread and do something worthwhile with it. I didn't get caught up. You lose value for what the f&*k is real. I just had enough to do what the f&*k I wanted to do. I'm still broke cause I spend all my money on bulls&*t. I was living, though, I was eating, a little bit. Vibe Online: Who do you consider to be your peers? Grafh: N#$%*s I really like are not signed yet. Those are the n&*%#s I really think are incredible. Right now I'm trying to compete with Pac, Jay-Z, Eminem, the n$%*&s that I feel really influenced me to do something. But the n%$*&s that are out nowÂ… they cool. I do respect them. Vibe Online: Tell me about the collaborations on your album. Grafh: I have a lot of records with people that I'm not putting on my album. I have a record with LiL' Flip, me and Scarface got a record, me and Juelz Santana, me and Jay-Z, me and Shyne, me and D-Block, but none of them are gonna go on my album. My man Bum Bee from UGK is on the album. I'm planning on working with one of them singing n$%#*s, either Ginuwine, Usher, or both of them. And I'm trying to get Chris Cornell on there, or the lead singer from Linkin Park. The album is called Autografh, and it's just about me. I got so much to say, if you try to limit me to 16 songs, I can't even fit everything in them. So I had to just do me for this album. Maybe next album I'll expand my horizons, and f*&k with this n&*%a and that n#$%a, but this album is Graph. I sell my own God d*&n record! Vibe Online: How would you describe your rap style? Grafh: Different, timeless, introspectiveÂ… Grafh's musical engineer jumps in: What did the New York Times say? "Charming disdain of the laws of meter?" I think that was a good way to put it. It's literally an eighth behind, and then he catches up to the one by the end of the bar. Then he falls behind again. Vibe Online: Right now, the south is getting the most air play. Where would you say rap is going next? Grafh: I think what's next is reality rap. I think n*&%$s want to hear the truth now. But the south s*&t is hot. When n*&%$s wanna crunk, they wanna party, and they wanna get wild in the club. Plus, nobody else is bringing in any kind of substance that we can f$%#ing embrace. The only n@#%$s bringing some hot s*&t right now is the south guys. The only n@#$%s I really f*&k with is street n*&%$s from New York that I think is hot, like I f*&k with D-block. N*&%$s ain't bringing that fire no more, man. I'm tired of hearing you talk about flipping bricks and all that s&*t. N&*%$s be little punk ass n*&$s talking about flipping bricks. Man, shut the f*&k up n*&%a. You never even seen coke, you b*&%h ass n@#$a. On the radio shows, the host asks a question, and the n*&%$s be like, "uhhhh?????" They f&*%ing dust. That s*&t ain't cool. Ya'll n*&%$s call yourselves rappers? I wish I wasn't called a rapper. I wish I sang or made beats or something. They just f*&k up the word. They make it sound so, shitty. N&*%$s ain't got no talent. They just on cause they know somebody. Vibe Online: What do you talk about in your music? Grafh: I talk about things that I feel, I know n#$%&s can relate to. I flow with it. I don't wanna do the same old s&*t n*&%$s been doing. I flow and I talk different. It's just different, that's all. Vibe Online: Content wise, how is your first album? Grafh: It's really an introduction of myself, all the pain I've been through. Everything I saw, everything I endured, what I learned from my peoples, learned what not to do, what to do. That's my basics. I always gotta go back to how I grew up, where I'm coming from, when you see me with all this pain. That's why I relate to Pac cause he's always talking about pain and struggle. N*&%$s is always gonna be poor, always gonna feel pain. VIBE Online: What was your childhood like? Grafh: It was just me and my mother in the streets growing up. The first male figure I had was and Old G n*&%a from the hood. He got murdered right in front of me. I didn't want no part of the streets after that. When I grew up, about sixteen or seventeen, my father came back into my life, and then they shot him across the street from me. I couldn't even cry at his funeral. I don't even know when the last time I cried. Back then they had me in psychiatry, seeing counselors in school and all that s*&t. They thought I was crazy. I was just mad. I got older and I realized that I gotta deal with it. It all came out in my music, in this album as a matter of fact. I never knew I could write these kinds of records. I didn't know I had that power to touch n*&%#s. Only a few artists do. Pac. Big. That's really what the album conveys- how I feel. It's a lot of pain, emotions and struggle on that album. It's a well-rounded joint. It's a classic album. I followed the blue print to every classic album and made a classic joint and I hope ya'll enjoy it. Check out Grafh's visit to VIBE Hi / Lo Listen to music from Grafh I Don't Care (AUDIO) / / Beyonce - Me Myself And I - Grafh Remix (AUDIO) / / Ginuwine - In Those Jeans - Grafh Remix (AUDIO) / /

Article tags: Interview, Grafh, He, Gearing, Up, Take, Over, Rap, Game 

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