We think Sean Price was really on to something when he started “tutoring” up and coming rappers. So instead of talking about the usual bullshit about his upcoming release Mic Tyson(10/30/12) we decided to talk to the artist formerly known as Ruck about his days in Junior High and Graphic Arts High School. –J. Pablo
So I’ve heard you hate doing interviews? Like more than most celebrity types even.
(Laughs) Not necessarily. It’s just some of the boring questions that get repeated. I don’t give the best answers either. Talib Kweli gives good answers. He’s the dude who jumps off the plane and opens his parachute and a parachute comes out. My parachute opens up and it’s just get forks and spoons.
Ok well, let’s just talk shit about back in the day then since you hate doing interviews. Tell me bout growing up in Brownsville.
When I was a kid I wanted to be fresh. In Brownsville, you gotta fight for shit to keep it and I stayed fresh. So that tells you a lot.
You never got picked on?
Of course I did. You HAD to fight in Brownsville and I couldn’t at first. I got tired of getting beat up so I took up karate. They had free classes in the library across the street on Saturdays. I still couldn’t fight so I started boxing. I got better but still wasn’t that good.Then I learned Knoya.
What the fuck is Knoya?
My uncle invented it. One day I saw my uncle fighting in the street and he beat the shit out the dude. I ran up on him like “Uncle Ron I didn’t know you knew how to fight like that. Teach me that style.” He said “That’s just Knoya. Keep Niggas Off Ya Ass.” So he taught me Knoya. I’m a second generation Knoya Master. I’m teaching my son now so he’ll be a third generation Knoya Master.
So that was the end of the bullying?
Nah, I was a smart kid, almost nerdy with my video games and shit. And my crew was just the other nerds I hung out with. In 7th grade kids wanted to hang with the cigarette smokers we’d still get picked on. Eventually I just stood up and made a conscious decision to start smacking niggas. I ain’t wanna be like that but that made me be like, “Fuck that I’m tired of getting beat up so I’m a be worse than [the bullies].
Damn. So tell us how you were by the time high school rolled around?
I started at Graphic Arts. I joined Decepticons. That was when I met Steel and Tek. We was just wildin’ back then. We had the K train back. We would take the K train to 50th from Brooklyn and walk two blocks to school. Sometimes I would take the N to 49t. There was an electronic store that I would go past. One day I stole a walkman right out of the store. It had the nickel rechargeable battery. I thought I was fresh with my state of the art walkman. First day was cool, second days was cool… third day my battery died and I ain’t steal the charger. So that was that…
Who else did you go to high school with?
Sticky Fingaz went to high school with us. So did Maxwell and Craig G. And this was when Craig G was popping. When he was in high school he was that dude. Chains, all the girls were feeling him.
You never thought about robbing him?
Of course we thought about robbing him. We thought about robbing him more than once. But he wasn’t no punk and he wasn’t scared. He battled my Decept niggas in front of us. He killed my man, murdered him. But he hardly came to school. If you see Craig G you tell him Sean Price said he’s a big truant.
What else do you remember from high school?
Well, Graphics was right by Times Square and this was when Times Square was still crazy. They had a club called Love. I would see the weirdest people at 8am coming out of there like, “Wow.” Porn was still heavy so you might see a freak in a trench coat jerking off.
Wild times.
Too wild. We did pretty much every type of crime in that school. None of the creep crimes though, no rape or nothing like that but but pretty much every other type of crime we did. It all came to an end when the school bought me into this office and told me to sign this paper or they were calling the cops. So I signed and that ws my last day at Graphic Arts.