In my opinion, this is an album of classic Priest with dark beats behind deep, spiritual jewels and conspiracy theories. What was your mindspace like making this album?
First, I want to say thank you. I went in there focused. My mindstate was to give them raw all the way through. Just give them raw Priest. I wanted to touch on subjects that be on my mind. There’s a lot of stuff that always be on my mind. It’s just different types of stories and different types of themes. It just comes from everywhere. It comes from the inner core of just my mind being so much of a circus. I look at this and I look at that. It’s something like a dark circus and I wanted to fulfill those parts that was in my mind. I wanted to fulfill this act. I wasn’t going to hold back. I was going to do something that I wanted to do and introduce them to concepts that I wanted to do. It’s a whole bunch of things, man, and I just did it. I would not compromise. I just stuck to raw hip-hop, raw Priest. I just stuck to something that I grew up on and it basically came from a dark shadow of my mind, from the pit of it, and that’s what’s at the heart of it.
After listening to “Lord Marduk,” I gotta ask. What’s going on with you and Cilvaringz?
This is the first and last time I’m going to talk about this. In 2012 Cilvaringz hit me up to be on his album and I saw it as an opportunity for my album also. We had a conversation, real light, over the phone and I came out to NY, my hometown, but in the contract, I told him, “Listen, here’s the contact. I’ll do the verse if you can put a banner up on Wu-Tang Corp. Just help me out and support. Show me that you want to support me as much as you want me to support you. You know, one hand wash the other.” He had agreed to that. He said, “Oh yeah.” I wouldn’t do nothing until that was in the contract. It was all love, but I wanted to keep it business too. I did my part and we created the contract. My man Gee was there. He made the contract and he sent it to me. I read it and I had my lawyers see it and whatever. It was in there. Okay, fine. I’ll do the verse and you make sure you put that banner up there. I do the verse and this dude never, ever contacted me again, even when I was leaving. I wanted to stay a couple of extra days. he never got back in touch with me. I never heard from him ever again. As much as I tried to contact him, he stopped answering the phone.
And the person he had working, he said, “I don’t know, Priest. He’s just acting like a bytch right now.” Even the dude that was working with him was saying that He wasn’t answering the phone and I never spoke to him and that shyt was just eating at me, man. It’s like, that dude’s a fake and he’s lying. Even when they said my album was dropping, he never picked up the phone and asked me about it and asked if I was good and if I needed him to do anything. He didn’t give me no information. So time goes by and time goes by and it dawned on me, man, Cilvaringz is fake and he’s a liar. He’s all about the music but he’s not really about being a man of his word or looking out for his brother like he say he is. So one day I was doing a track and I just expressed it. It’s all love. Everything I said was the truth and I felt like I said all that was needed to say. It’s one and it’s done. I let it out there.
So he got the word and called me up and said, “I heard you dissed me on the track.” I told him it wasn’t even a diss. It’s real life. I just said it and you can take it for what it is. But that’s exactly what happened and I’m not lying. He’s a liar. But all of a sudden, after he heard that I dissed him, he’s calling me a lot and I saw how he could pick up the phone and call me when it was about his personal self. That’s what I don’t like about brothers like that. It’s not about selling records. It’s about keeping up with each other. We’re older now and we’re in a different state. Don’t play with me like that. He’s a liar and that’s the truth. He says he’s a man of his word but he lied to me, and that was it. And for everybody out there, that’s exactly what happened. CIlvaringz, just practice what you preach and don’t lie to real dudes because that shyt’s going to come back on you and a cat like me, I’m not going to have that. I came at him like a brother and he tried that bullshyt. Get that industry bullshyt out of you and be real and holla at cats. And that goes out to the Wu-Tang Nation out there. I was talking about Cilvaringz on there. Word up.
It seems like you still have strong relationships with members of the Wu-Tang. Do you think a part of that reason is because you were so close to the group but never an official member, so you were able to avoid some of the internal politics that hurt the group?
Definitely. Definitely. Definitely it did. I always felt like I was a brother on this side, like a Wu-Tang member. I said it in “Process of Man.” I was with Wu-Tang from the beginning. I was there. I battled for brothers. I went to war. I put in a lot of work. It used to get to me. I was with RZA the whole time. He used to bring me with him when he was politicking and it used to bother me a little bit back then that I never got that recognition. Ghost told me I never got that recognition. But it just helped me become stronger. It’s like a lot of people say I’m a Wu affiliate. No. I’m Wu-Tang for real. I’ve been over to brother’s cribs. I know brothers. I was there amongst the fights. It comes right back to me and they say if you love something let it go and it’ll come back and it does. I got in arguments with cats, it was just like a family. (laughs)
And since I was always pushed out by the majors and the Wu-Tang majors, like they told me I couldn’t go to Japan and I was hurt by all of those things. It just motivated me to keep going strong. I just kept my torch lit and it just inspired me. I sort of have a chip on my shoulder, I’m not going to lie, but that’s what keeps me spitting raw, until they recognize.
Are you happy with where you stand with Wu-Tang today?
Definitely. I feel real good. I couldn’t be in a better place, man. I couldn’t be in a better place. I guess until they stamp it and put me in graduation and say, “Priest is the new member,” (laughs) I’m getting those checks at the shows and it’s all good. But that’s where real good brothers like Ghost come in, standing up for me. Raekwon came through on the album. Everybody came through. Even RZA came through and blessed me with the beats.
I also feel like I got a lot of freedom. I can just take my music and I don’t have to listen to nobody. I can take the advice and I can take positive advice and I can use it how I want. I can kind of put it on a scale and decide if I want to do this and take that advice, I can do that. I can take RZA’s advice and Ghost’s advice and if Rae says this, I can do that . He told me to just put it out.
I feel like I’m in a place where a lot of people know about me already. I feel like I’m a phantom, like Priest never really exists. I’m like a mystery. When you go and look for the Priest, I’m there. Priest is the phantom. He’s the cat that’s always there. He swings his sword. I’m just that younger brother. When they go down, there’s always this cat standing there. I just try to keep my sword sharp. I keep it up. But when you come through my chamber, it ain’t gonna be no running through. I keep it that way. It’s called retarded strength of a Super Saiyan. Just become a Super Saiyan, Level 10.
