These are the transcripts of an interview between Hugz Boss and Apathy, conducted on August 29th, 2000. Apathy is well known for his off the dome freestyles and has worked with Alien Nation, Jedi Mind Tricks and the DemiGodz. He recently dropped two dope 12"s and is set to release more material of the same caliber.

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What inspired you to become an emcee?
I'd have to say old school Hip Hop. Like hearing original tracks, that boom bap hype party vibe. That old Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel type shit. That made me really wanna rhyme along with them. It made me really get into Hip Hop back then.

You know Ant-One really well, don't ya?
Yeah, yeah, no doubt.
Now, the thing is, a lot of people...since he has come onto my site, have acquired, let's say a "less than respectful opinion of him." Now everyone wants to know how he became friends with you and head of your promotions.
Here's the thing, now this is a good subject to touch upon and I'm glad you asked that question because we've been going through a lot of problems with this lately. The thing about Ant is, I don't think he takes a lot of this shit - talking to the kids, too seriously. And he's basically got love for everybody, it's more of a complex sense of humour with him. He disses people and makes fun of shit, but he kinda sits back and laughs at how absurd it is. It's not like he really takes it seriously. He's doing my promotions right now. He's not my manager, he's doing my promotions because he's really good at what he does, promoting. He really handles his business. I don't agree with the shit he says, I mean Ant's my friend and me and him hang out on the regular, we play basketball, we play video games together, I chill at his house, he chills at mine, we go out. But it's not like I agree with what he says. I'm more of the type of cat where I don't let shit bother me, I don't talk shit about people. I'm cool with everything. He's more the type who will voice his opinion about shit, I don't agree with that and we're trying to work out a lot of those problems but I'm saying, he still is, pretty much, one of my best friends.

Freestyling. Tell us about your connection to that word/artform.
Off the dome?
Yeah...
I don't really know where that comes from, it just comes out. I just sit back and concentrate on my flow, I think about words that rhyme. When I was in high school I would actually read the dictionary quite a bit which I'm sure a lot of emcees do and you just start to memorize what words rhyme with other words and have fun with it. What I try to do is when I freestyle is to involve the people around me. I try to make it fun for them as opposed to someone just fucking rapping at them. I try to make them involved and have a good time, that's what Hip Hop's about - having a good time. I basically spit about what cats are wearing, what's going on in the room, cats can give me topics to rhyme about, pretty much anything. I take it pretty seriously.
The last freestyle I heard of yours was with Sage Fancis...and that was pretty cool
HAHA, word, yeah. Actually, at that time I had a pretty bad sinus infection and I was just fuckin' in pain - I was just fucked up. I was really surprised at how that came out because I just heard it recently, since the time we did it, which was a while ago. We were messing around freestyling and it was dope, it was a really dope session. Sage is really cool, I consider him a real cool friend. He's dope. I just had mad fun doing it, and am pleased with how the whole thing went down.

How did you come in contact with Jedi Mind Tricks and was the first thing you recorded with them ?
Okay, back in the day I was part of this crew called Alien Nation, which was like Supernatural, Phoenix Orion and a lot of other heads and we were on some super scientific metaphysical philosophy type rhymes before a lot of people were. I heard Jedi Mind Tricks first EP; 'The Amber Probe' EP, I got that at the radio station I was workin' at. So this time I was kinda bugged out that they were spitting the same holy-tabernacle-ministries type hebrew-israelite sciences. I was really impressed. Now usually I'd get offended and be like "Damn man, these kids are on our vibe," but, they were doing it so correct that I was like man I wanna work with these kids, these kids are hot. I couldn't find any contact info for these cats apart from an email address, so I emailed them, told them who I was, what I did. Ikon emailed me right back and was like "Yo, lets talk over the phone." So I called him up, and we were rhyming over the phone to each other and just buggin' out. We were just really feeling each other's shit. We then became mad cool on the phone. He wanted to get me on the album, and it was taking me forever to get down there so finally I took a train, went down to Philly, wrote my verses on the way there on the train. Then just showed up and rocked the shit basically. The rest is pretty much......history.

You have a different style on your Jedi Mind Tricks stuff to what you do on your more recent 12"s, is there a reason for that?
Yeah, there's a real big reason for that. Cats are gonna be real fucked up when my full length drops because I'm the type of cat where I'm real prolific. I have over 300 notebooks, write continuously. Literally I have over 300 notebooks, that's not an exaggeration or embelishment. I write constantly. A lot of cats like Louis Logic or Vinnie [Ikon] and Esoteric all make fun of me because I write so much. I write literally any type of style you could think of. Complex stuff like Jedi Mind tricks, to the most simple flow about girls, to a rhyme I got about Chess, to double time rhymes, to, almost literally every type of rhyme style to every type of subject matter. Whether it's girls, money, fighting emcees, being abducted for a government experiment, alien crap, literally everything. I do it all, and that's what's gonna bug kids out because my album is gonna be a big conglomeration of that with hot beats provided by me, Celph Titled, and a couple of other kids. I also have everything for everybody this time. A lot of people say that but very few people deliver that.
When would be a likely time that the LP would surface?
We're working on it right now, and we're talking to "a place" I'd like to say. We're just trying to figure out what we're gonna do business wise, that's what it all comes down to right now. I have all the material ready, Celph and I have all the beats ready. It's all ready to go, we just basically have to secure the recording budget to get that going, to get that done with. We're gonna start doing the singles right away.

How does it feel to be established, comin' out of CT. CT isnt really known for putting out that many emcees...
I love Connecticut to death. I was thinkin' about moving to New York recently and even if I did move to New York, I would still be going back to Connecticut and representing there. I'm totally in love with Connecticut. I feel I need to rep for Connecticut because there aren't too many kids coming out of here. There's my man Chris Lowe coming out of there whom I haven't met up with yet...I'd like to get a shout out to my peoples Hung Jury too. Those cats are nice, watch out for them, I wouldn't be surprised if they got signed on some major label shit soon. I think Connecticut needs people and people need to realize that there's a lot of emcees in Connecticut, they just down know how to get their shit out. There's also a lot of punk fucking emcees from Connecticut too, and I'd like to quote that. And they know who they are, talking bad about me just because I'm doin' my shit. So, fuck them.

You were a radio show host once right ? Any plans to return to that ?
I'd like to, but I really don't have any immediate plans because I've been real busy as of lately, I'm about to do some big shit with some pretty large heads which I don't wanna talk about right now because it's all up in the air. I really don't have time for that right now but I wish I did because it was one of my favourite time periods of my life ever. It was one of my favourite things to do. It was so fresh. It was called "Boom Box From The Boondox" and it was off the wall, we had a lot of fun shit doing it. One of our DJ's - Mayday was involved with it, Open Mic was involved with it, the kid Metropolis. That was hot, we were like some of the first cats in Conneticut to really capitalize on having kids call up and battle them over the air, have fun. And have girls call up and talk to us about what they were wearing and shit, all these types of crazy stuff that people don't usually do on the radio.

Can you tell me about The Demigodz, in terms of exactly who's in the group, what you're working on etc.?
The Demigodz is right now, myself, Open Mic, Metropolis, Celph Titled, One Two, Jabber Jaw, Spin 4th, Damage, 181, Unpaid Bill, Mayday and Ant One, Chum The Animal Steel. Right now, we just recorded Jabber Jaw's new single last night which is called 'Record Breakin' which is gonna be fuckin' amazing, cats are gonna bug out. There's a real high energy level behind that, and it's just hot punchlines - it's off the fuckin' wall. We just did that. I'm producing Rise's new single which is gonna be coming out soon, hopefully, we're working on it right now. The thing me and Celph are tryin' to do right now is...me and Celph are pretty much like brothers. We do everything back to back and we're like fuckin' partners pretty much. For some reason, cats are sleeping and don't realize how ill of an emcee Celph is. Cats don't realize that I produce at all.
Yeah, Celph and I were talking about that
We're about to bring that to the light, we're about to shock the world a little bit and be like "Yo, check this out, and check this out." We're about to show people what the fuck Demigodz are really made of. It's gonna be ill. We're gonna be working on Open Mic's single soon and Yag Fu Front is part of our crew which is Spin 4th and Damage and if cats don't know they had an album out in like '94 with the classic single called 'Left Field' and 'Busted Loop,' also they had that. They're working on new shit, which is just off the meter too.

What just popped into my mind was the quote "We'll fuckin' throw Root Beers in your fridge," can you explain that?
Ahaha..."Root beers in your fridge" is just some slang we developed. We love how Wu-Tang Clan spits all that slang that makes no sense. We think that's hot and really fresh, we like it 'cause it's just funny sounding. So we decided to develop our own slang and one night while we were working on the 'Ain't Nuthin' Nice' single, we went to a diner. It was real late at night and I ordered 2 Root beers with my meal. So I finished one of the Root Beers and we took the other one back. Me and Celph were just fucking around, talkin' all bugged out to each other. And I was like "Yo son, I'ma throw this Root Beer in your fridge," and Celph was like "Ohhh shit, that was like some ill shit right there." So we took that and adapted it into some dunn language. Highly technical dunn language. L-Fudge says it, Percee-P says it on this cat's mixtape. It's real funny because a lot of cats are saying it. Celph brings it back right on Jabber Jaw's new single. We got some new slang that we're trying to develop too, it's not really new but it needs to be resurrected is motherfuckers who are on some bitch type shit, if you're a soft cat, we call 'em "skirts." And there's a lot of "skirts" right now that are rappin'.
Nah, the first time Celph sent me 'Compatible,' I was really enjoying the track and then I heard the end of it the "Root beers in your fridge" shit and my expression completely changed - that confused the fuck out of me...
Hahaha, that's what we were tryin' to do, we were tryin' to confuse people. The funny thing is how much its caught on, because kids'll come up to me at a show and be like "Yo son, yo throw a Root Beer in their fridge kid." For some reason it really picked up and cats love it. A whole bunch of people I know be sayin' it on the regular. Actually, now the studio that we work out which is now our little production type studio is called "The Chrome Depot."
That'd explain it

How do you differentiate yourself as an emcee from other emcees?
A lot of emcees right now are rhyming on the same subject matter whether they're talking about the new world order or talking about average punchlines right now and the thing that I'm doing right now to try to differentiate myself from other emcees, even emcees who are trying to be way too complex and way too "next level," I'm just trying to bring back that old Hip Hop vibe and everything I spit, I spit with force. I try to really like take kids heads off. I try to make my punchlines funny and stand out, and be shit that kids can bug out to. I try to really control my voice and when I rhyme, I have conversations with people. I'm not just sitting there like "Yo, I'm Apathy, blah, blah, blah" monotoned. I really try to control how I talk to kids. I really try to spit and make it sound like I'm talking to you. I basically try to spit my shit with a lot of force.

What do you think about the online Hip-Hop scene?
The online Hip-Hop scene is positive and negative at the same time right now. Because, back when Celph and I were young cats, and most of the kids in the Demigodz, it was hard to really stay up on the scene, and you had to really be submersed in it - you had to be going to the shows to find out who was nice. You couldn't just be sitting home in Palm fuckin' something in Nebraska and find out what's the newest shit online, you know what I'm sayin? You had to actually go and do the work, you had to put in the work to be known as an emcee. Back in the day, if somebody approached you and was like, "Yo I'm an emcee," you're like "Oh shit," and you assume they have lyrics. Nowadays when someone approaches me and is like "Yo I'm an emcee," I assume that they'll be wack first and if they're dope it surprises me. The Hip Hop scene right now on the net is cool, but it's also very saturated. Everybody's trying to be an emcee, a producer or a DJ, or somethin'. There's no more fans left, kids can't just sit back and be fans, everybody's gotta try to do their shit. There are kids with horrible, wack voices, horrible rhymes, horrible beats and are disillusioned, and think their shit is hot just because they're doing it. It's cool that they wanna do something, but you can't just go around and start judging other people and you can't running around dissing cats and acting like the man when you're really not, you've gotta be humble. I'm opinionated, but I'm humble. I'm at the point where I know there's a lot of kids better than me, there's a lot of kids that have paid way more dues than me and there's also a lot of kids who're younger than me, who're nice and who're gonna have a very good future in this game. The positive side of the net is that it does get your shit out too and it really does let people know who you are. Also too, it's fun, I like talking to people from California, who I usually wouldn't talk to, or someone from Norway, that shit bugs me out. That's really hot. I'm pretty much addicted to the Internet man, there's not a day goes by where I can't just peep what's goin' on. It's all cool, and I met a lot of interesting people through the net. So, it's really dope.

So what about the MP3 scene? I've seen your last two 12"s in MP3 as well as some older stuff
MP3 is cool in some aspects because people who are gonna buy shit, are gonna buy shit anyway. I have the technology to have MP3 shit and burn it but I buy shit anyway because I like having the actual CD, I like having the whole thing, and I think people who buy shit anyway are gonna continue doing so. The people who are just gonna MP3 shit are the kids who ten years ago would have just taped your shit from their friend. So I think it's all the same, I don't think it's really gonna hurt sales dynamically. Especially on the level that I'm doing shit. Cats who wanna spin, are gonna spin, they're not gonna get MP3's and burn my shit, so the kids who do MP3 and burn my shit, that's cool because maybe they wouldn't be able to hear it any other way I'm happy they heard my shit. Plus it's fun, maybe I'll MP3 a cypher or some shit and throw it out on the net so kids can hear it.

What are you working on now ? The album? Or anything other than that?
Yo, I'm working on mad shit. I'm workin' on my single first of all, which is probably, this might change but I doubt it. The A-side is gonna be called 'Talk To Me.' The B-side is gonna be a fuckin' banger produced by Celph Titled (the A-side is produced by me) called 'Apathetic.' It'll be pretty much a definitive battle track for me. That's gonna be some of the hottest lyrics I've ever spitted over some of Celph's hottest beats ever. I'm working on that single which'll be coming out...who knows when...we haven't even finalized anything. We're gonna record it tonight. I just produced Jabber Jaw's single. I'll be doing two more singles before the full length. Celph Titled, Louis Logic and I formed a group called the Invincible Force MC's. I produced some joints for it, Celph produced some joints for it and that's gonna be a hot project right there. I produced the new Rise joint that's coming out, I'm producing Open Mic's joint that's coming out, me and Celph are doing that. There's a lot of shit. I'll be doing guest appearances and shit, like the new Dutchmassive single. Dutchmassive's shit is hot man, cats gotta check that. Dutch is bringin' it back to a '93 flavour. So, um, yeah, that's pretty much it.

Any last comments you'd like to make on anything we haven't covered?
Yeah, right now there's this crew outta Arizona and basically we think they tried to take our name, Demigodz, after they found out me and Open Mic weren't using that name for a group anymore. But what they didn't know was that we were keeping it for a crew name. Open Mic is older than I am and he started the Demigodz name back in 1991. So Demigodz has been around since then. And these kids from Arizona are like twenty something. They tried to jack our name because they used to talk to us on the internet or whatever. When I said to them Open Mic had the name since '91 they were like "Yeah, we did too." The thing is if they have the name in '91 they would have had the name at around 10. Get the fuck outta here! These cats registered a domain name, demigodz.com after they found out that my single just came out, with the Demigodz crew on the back of it. Funny thing about it is, I listened to these kids' shit, thinkin' maybe we're gonna have to battle them or something, but they're fuckin' terrible! They're horrible! These are like the worst pieces of shit. And they really need to change their name. Move on. We worked hard to establish the name and it's getting out there, let it go.