In my recent interview with Roxbury singer/producer/business mogul Masspike Miles, we touched on a number of topics, including his thoughts on the 2009 Boston Music Awards.

Following the BMAs, Miles had made written comments on a bostonhiphoponline.com discussion board about the lack of urban representation at the award show. Those comments ended up on other blog sites and drew wide attention from the local community. Miles has since done a radio interview with JAM’N 94.5’s DJ ON & ON apologizing for the nature of some of his statements, but standing behind the original message that the urban community needs greater representation at the city’s music awards.

Here are extras from our discussion about the BMAs:

On the emotion behind his comments…

“When I said f**k the BMAs, racist pr**ks, it’s just how I felt at the time. For years and years they stressed that it’s not a race thing and we don’t communicate with the people that organize and we should communicate, boom boom boom, but how come they reach out to these people and don’t reach out to us?

And then when I spoke on them not having no black performers, they have four black women singing an old slave song. I was like you gotta be kidding me. It was just crazy because ain’t no black people performing, but here goes the four token black women singing an old slave song down by the river, like, stop it. Not no disrespect to them because I don’t want them to feel disrespected, because I know my tongue’s kinda slick, but that’s how I look at it.”

On not being able to perform at the awards show after originally being slated to perform…

“When I spoke with (BMA organizer, nominee and winner) Malik (Williams), it just really hurt my feelings at the fact that I couldn’t perform, that my peers wasn’t really involved and there were no black people performing.”

On why he couldn’t perform…

“I have no idea. They said Louie Bello took my place as a default. He was a default and he performed.

And with Lisa and Louie they got six nominations, eight nominations amongst their whole squad. They all took something home. At the end of the day it’s like umm what the f**k? Why are you just giving them something and not giving us something?

OK cool, they’ve been doing karaoke or whatever they’ve been doing. It’s all good, I’m not even trying to disrespect them any way, but they’re not really out on the slab, let’s keep it funky. When I mean on the slab I mean on that chitlin circuit, getting state to state, grindin where nobody knows you.

You can go perform at a f***ing hospital function fund raiser with a tuxedo on because I can’t. I know you can, I can’t. Ok and I know you can go get 2-300 dollars and I can’t, but that doesn’t mean that your music is any better or you worked any harder than me this year.

And he (Malik Williams) pissed me off when he said ‘they had more YouTubes than you and they put out albums.’ And don’t act like I don’t connections at TuneCore to find out what you sold on iTunes, and don’t act like how many YouTube plays she got, like let’s not even – come on.

At the end of the day I can’t even count my YouTube plays. Every month I get a report from TuneCore on how much money I have just sitting there waiting for me to pick up. Then I’m like – do you not check BDS spins? Do you not check where it’s getting played? Who’s running this? ‘Cause for some reason y’all are doing it like the Grammys in 2000 where name a rapper, yeah he won and he doesn’t get to go up on the stage.”

On the BMAs banning mixtapes…

“They banned mixtapes. Why did they ban mixtapes at the BMAs? I just want to know that. Because Aerosmith’s not making “Chronicles of Horses and Hay Volume 1” and you know what I’m saying, let’s keep it real. Because it’s free, because we give it our people for free? Whatever.”

On the hip-hop category…

“Esoteric won, like what has Esoteric accomplished honestly, to be winning every year? What does he have over Smoke Bulga? What does he have over Frankie Wainwright? What does he have over Millyz? Or Slaine? Or Term (Termanology) for that matter? Now come on, let’s keep it real.

Term is in Ukraine performing, he’s in Yugoslavia and South Africa performing. Who is Esoteric? He could be a cool dude, I’m not saying that, but musically he sucks. Let’s just keep it real. I was brought up in music, I was raised around good rhythms, when you suck and you can’t rap or bounce properly, or your wordplay is horrible, or you can’t write, you just suck and that’s just it. I don’t care if you’ve got fans all over the world and you sell an estimated 30,000 units every time you come out. That doesn’t impress me.

My thing is where are my peers? So me being emotional basically got the attention of Chip Reeves (CEO of the company that owns the BMAs). I’m not mad. If I gotta be the arrogant token a**hole for us, then so be it. I don’t care if I’m not successful or people don’t like me or think I’m starting a racial war, nah it’s not that.

I wasn’t singling Lisa and Louie out on some racial s**t, but I felt like they got picked over others because they were of another race. But Chip Reeves, he stated some things and I apologized, I was even on 94.5 with DJ On & On and I apologized to Lisa, Louie and Chip Reeves live on the air because I got emotional.

I got so emotional to the point where it was just like I’m ready to pay 200 ni**as to go to the BMAs and picket like it’s the union and the construction workers, that’s what’s gonna happen next year. If Chip Reeves and somebody doesn’t appropriately holla at the right people to get at me, I promise you I will have the whole Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan, wherever they at next year, with signs. Because they need to respect us.” 

On the solution…

“What I think we need to do is basically, we need to all come out with albums, whether they’re free or paid for, there’s reputable distribution companies such as TuneCore that can actually get your music on iTunes, Amazon, Napster, and where you can actually make some money, and I think that’s what we need to do this year. All of us can unite from the r & b to the rap and anybody else who wants to be down with us and be down with this cause.

I think we need to put out albums instead of calling it mixtapes and if they need any help they need to just go to TuneCore and upload their music and pay a little $100 to put their music up on iTunes and other places like that, so when they’re researching us, they can see that we’re actually putting out some hard copies.”

On being nominated for just one award…

“I was content with that. I never won nothing or been nominated for anything, let’s keep it real. What pissed me off besides the six nominations from Lisa and Louie, who are these people that are nominated with me, and what genre of music are they in, and are they just fillers just because?

Not only that but then I looked at the hip-hop category, and it’s like you know, I didn’t really understand it. I was more frustrated with the hip-hop category than the act of the year category because who is this dude Esoteric? I mean I’m not trying to hate on him, but I dislike the situation and then I looked him up and he’s white, it just was like come on, you’re f***in being blatant with this, and that’s why it really turned into the race issue, because Lisa and Louie, man they couldn’t be no more white. Esoteric, he’s white. Everybody’s white. OK, we’re not gonna win nothing. And who wins, the only token black guy … Malik Williams gets his share. (Hip-Hop Producer of the Year winner) D-Tension, how does that happen?”

On attending the actual award show…

“At the end of the day I just watched how it was organized, and it actually was structured properly. I liked how it was set up tier to tier. It was dope, it was fly, the lighting was great and all that whatever whatever, but where was we at? I just went to go see where we was. ‘Cause I see Louie and Lisa, everybody got to perform, but no Masspike Miles, no Term, I didn’t get to see Slaine. Matter of fact I didn’t even get to see Esoteric.

And the whole thing is is like, do y’all really got love for us, or what are y’all trying to do?

It’s not just hip-hop, it’s not r & b, it’s not a black or white thing, it’s a music thing. Respect our music, believe that, ‘cause all that music you thumpin’ thrive off ours.”

Here’s an interview I did with B.o.B. aka Bobby Ray awhile back and recently dug out of the vault.

Part rapper, part singer, part producer, part philosopher, the Atlanta native is currently signed to Atlantic Records and T.I.’s Grand Hustle. He’s been featured on the cover of magazines such as Vibe and XXL representing for promising new talent. And he’s only 21…in Earth years, anyway.

Here are excerpts of my chat with B.o.B., which took place in a van behind Harpers Ferry this fall. We discuss his sound, his musical philosophy, how he got signed and what his future plans involve.

On what he prefers being called…

“I’m actually impartial. There was a period where I felt like I really was trying to design a name, well not design a name, it’s Bobby Ray, that’s my government name, but it’s kind of like no matter what, someone’s gonna call you something, so you really define what you are beyond any label that you give yourself.

B.o.B., Bob, Bobby Ray, it doesn’t matter, there’s a Bob in there somewhere.”

On his sound…

“I would describe my sound, and see this is where I’m different, because when it comes to a sound, I don’t feel the need to describe it. I feel like trying to describe it is putting in a box.

I understand what I’m doing, I understand what elements come from hip-hop and rock and r & b, but it’s kind of undescribable. It’s a little reggae in there, a little electro, a little meditation music, ‘cause it’s all in my subconscious mind, so it just comes out.”

On comparisons to artists such as Andre 3000 and Cee-Lo of Gnarls Barkley…

“I feel like the comparisons are something that is expected of a human. You know, as a human being you need something to compare something to.

Honestly, it’s kind of something I’m aware of and I don’t really focus on too much, because the way we make music is so different. People may compare me to other artists but the comparison is only in the uniqueness of it.

And even if I was making similar music to somebody else, nobody can take credit for anything because everything came from something else. It’s just cycled down, the same trends and cycles are gonna come around from disco and rock. And even with fashion, the styles that are the most popular today came from the ’80s. So that was my tangent.”

On his musical background…

“It’s a pretty musical background, nothing too serious. I played trumpet but it was more like a hobby, it was more an activity to participate in, like sports. That was like the gateway for me. That kind of opened my mind up to music and what it was, and I remember when I first started playing, I was looking at the staff sheet just thinking I knew what it was and just thinking some random s**t, but it was always in my household.

My sister played the piano, so I always saw her and that’s kind of why I play keys now. She’s actually younger than me and we both started playing instruments at the same time, so I kind of incorporate that into what I do now.

You have to be ridiculously sensitive to sound as a musician and it’s kind of like that sensitivity bleeds out into normal life, so you’ll find that artists are very sensitive. And we don’t really judge things because we hate categories but we’re just sensitive, so we’re really reactive or proactive, it’s always really passionate.”

On producing his own music…

“I produce about 90 percent of what I do. I really know what I want, that’s why.

I want some s**t that sounds good, but good is so vague nowadays, you know what I mean? What I really want is to really just be free, moreso than wanting to have something.

When I make music, that’s my expression of self, and it’s kind of like throughout life, even if you logically put your life into a category and say well I’m making this amount of money a year, if I save up this amount then this will come out, you know you can put your life in a linear fashion, but at the end of the day it’s really an expression.

Even the fact that you’re able to save up your money and create a lifestyle that is very luxurious, it’s still an expression of self, you know, because you’re gonna die one day, and then it’s not gonna matter to you where you’re going.

So for the time being that we’re here, it’s all about expression. And that’s something when you really grasp, it makes life way easier.”

On how/why he embarked on a career in music…

“From 13 to 20 I started rapping, then I started getting tired of rapping so I wanted to sing and rap, then I wanted to play instruments, sing and rap, then I wanted to perform and rap, then I’m probably gonna want to do acrobatics and act and rap next year. I don’t know, I’m trying to just pace myself. It’s like you’ve got to do enough s**t to not be bored, but not do too much s**t that you overwork yourself, that’s the balance.

Basically I was 13 and I was faced with an ultimatum from some unseen big creature or being that was talking to me like, ‘you know you want to do this, you know you want to rap.’ Like this voice, this energy, even if it’s not an actual being, it’s like this energy that’s pushing you to do something and it takes a lot of energy.

When people say energy, I feel like energy’s very underrated, so whenever someone uses the word energy, you really have to listen to what they’re saying because it’s very simple, literal. It takes a lot of energy to do what I do and a lot of stamina. There are a lot of different things that have to be in place, and so once I learned how much energy I had to put into it, then I was able to start, then I was able to give, to really know where I needed to put my energy, because you can waste your energy in pointless areas.

So now I know that I need to put certain energy into making music and actually putting out the attempt to reach people. And then you run into the record labels, you know you just run into the right people when you’re in that direction.”

On his record label situation…

“I got signed – I can give an answer to that question and give the Hollywood answer, or I could just say the stars aligned and the right person met me and brought me to the right record label and made me feel good enough to sign on their paper that they printed. And honestly I would have to do the same thing if I was signed or I wasn’t signed. So really, being signed is the equivalent of signing a business contract, there’s nothing more to it than that.

I signed to Atlantic and Atlantic is the umbrella company, and Rebel Rock and Grand Hustle are joint ventures, and they’re both under Atlantic. T.I. is Grand Hustle and Rebel Rock is Jim Jonsin and Jim Jonsin, more recently he produced ‘Whatever You Like’ and ‘Lollipop.’”

On his musical influences growing up…

“I listened to Eminem, Andre 3000, I’m still growing up now, so I’m still listening to the Foo Fighters, Coldplay a lot. And I’m not listening to Coldplay because of how popular they were. I actually ran across Coldplay by accident. I had no idea who Coldplay was and a friend of mine was like ‘Jesus Christ these guys are my gods right now,’ so I’ve been to two of their concerts in the past two years and that inspires my show, that and just being in the hip-hop world.

They inspire the music side of my live show. That and My Chemical Romance and Paramour, Raphael Saadiq. I look at people’s live shows all the time. I look at good live shows and I’m like how is that so good? And there’s just certain s**t you can’t do at this point, when you’re in a bar. But there’s a lot that you can do in a bar, so…”

On what’s next…

“I hope inspiration stays with me to keep me going, because if I’m not inspired I wouldn’t be doing this. I’m in a 15-passenger van. How much energy I put into this I could put it into anything else and not travel so much, but I just love it and it’s because I’m inspired to do it and wherever that takes me I don’t know, because I don’t know what I’ll be inspired to do. Because I’m not just gonna do something just because I think about doing it or I plan on doing it. I only plan on what inspires me.

At this point, I just want to keep making music and performing and just let the shows get bigger…and I had a dream about this. I swear to god, I had a dream I was in this van and I was looking at that Blanchard’s Parking Only (sign).”

For more on B.o.B./Bobby Ray visit:

Twitter.com/bobatl, Myspace.com/bobatl or bobatl.com.

After Lil Wayne’s no-show at Monster Jam last year due to a disagreement with the TD Garden’s metal detectors, I decided to have a little fun and dream up all the things that could possibly go wrong with this year’s show.

Note: I’m totally kidding. I’m sure the show is going to be a scream!!!

And now, in no particular order, the Top 7 Things That Could Go Wrong at Monster Jam 2009:

7. Keri Hilson runs low on “Energy” and naps through her set. Not even repeated texts and calls from Lil Wayne – who offers to make up for last year’s no-show by performing his verse on “Turnin’ Me On,” vowing to comply with all venue procedures – can rouse her.

6. Jeremih is busy writing a computer program that uses a special algorithm to calculate the next time he’ll be able to have “Birthday Sex” with a female on his BlackBerry contact list. He becomes so engrossed in his calculations that he misses his scheduled performance.

5. The New Boyz get into a backstage altercation after Ben J tells Legacy that his jeanz aren’t skinny enough. Offended, Legacy retorts with “You’re a Jerk!” The two engage in a heated dance battle that lasts until sunrise.

4. The-Dream’s gear gets held up at the dry cleaners. An assistant brings him a backup outfit, but The-Dream decides it isn’t “Fancy” enough to wear onstage, declaring there’s no way he’ll be “Rockin’ That Thang.” Fabolous enters the dressing room to see what all the commotion is about, casts a gaze at The-Dream’s threads and utters “Street Fidda-didda-damn Terius, what are you wearing?”

Now irate, The-Dream hands Fab his Louis Vuitton satchel and orders him to get whatever he needs and “Throw It In the Bag” so the pair can leave. Fabolous briefly ponders doing things “Loso’s Way,” then agrees.

3. Maino arrives at the Garden in a bad mood. Jay Sean pokes his head into Maino’s dressing room and, noting that Maino is visibly “Down,” inquires about the problem. “What is it?” he asks. “Women? Lack of sleep? Wishing T-Pain was here?”

Maino just sighs and says, “All the Above.”

Shortly after, the New Boyz pass by and Maino hears Legacy scream “You’re a Jerk!” Thinking the insult is directed at him, Maino promptly retorts with “Hi Hater!” and momentarily feels energized. He calls T-Pain to invite him to perform during his set one last time, but T-Pain declines and says “I’m On a Boat.” Maino returns to sulking.

Minutes later Mario walks by and says “Hey, our names are kind of similar, we should talk.” Maino reveals that he’s secretly lonely. Mario nods in understanding and says that we all need people who love and care about us. He outstretches his right arm for a handshake-hug, uttering “Let Me Love You’” in the most platonic way possible. Maino flees the building.

2. Pitbull rehearses the “Gasolina” remix in the hallway to release nervous energy before his set, repeatedly uttering the lyrics “Dame mas gasolina, dame mas gasolina…” A bilingual security guard overhears him and thinks Pitbull is hatching a plot to commit arson. Pitbull is promptly escorted out of the building.

1. Kanye West happens to have extra time on his hands now that his tour has been cancelled, so while driving through the streets of Boston trying to find himself, he decides to stop by Monster Jam. In the midst of Three 6 Mafia’s Oscar-winning track “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp,” West becomes consumed by passion and storms the stage. “Now Three 6, I’m really happy for you, and Imma let you finish, but Eminem had one of the Best Original Songs of all time!!!” he says. After being carried offstage kicking and screaming by a pair of Three 6’s goons, Kanye issues an apology via MySpace in all caps.

JAM’N 94.5 Monster Jam featuring The-Dream, Fabolous, Keri Hilson, Mario, Pitbull, Three 6 Mafia, Jeremih, Maino, Jay Sean and New Boyz. TD Garden, Monday, 7 pm. $33-$148. 617-931-2000 or Ticketmaster.com.

Here are some extras from my interview with Cambridge rap duo Certified G’z, who opened for M.O.P at the Middle East on Thursday…

On their style of music:

“We try to make songs for everybody,” said 24-year-old Chief C, real name Chris Davis. “We’re not just trying to make a whole bunch of street music, even though we came from that. We also try to make different records. We focus on records for the ladies, we focus on feel good records, not even necessarily just party, I got rims on my car. We actually have feel-good - like you put it on on a summer day, you feel good. That’s the type of music we like to make, just good music all around the board.”

On getting caught up in street life:

“With a lot of these rappers, they get so caught up with their image and living what they’re rapping about,” said Chief C. “But it’s like come on, you gotta separate the two. This is a business. That was our problem, but we figured that out now.”

On close friend and Cambridge native J. Cardim, who has moved to New York and worked with hip-hop heavyweights such as Lil Wayne, Ludacris and Talib Kweli but still serves as in-house producer for the G’z:

“He’s well known in Boston but he’s making himself known in New York, so that’s good,” said Chief C. “It’s a big city. And that only helps us all at the end of the day. It’s all under the same umbrella, it’s all one movement.”

On J. Cardim producing most of their forthcoming album, “Set the City on Fire”:

“This album we’re gonna expand a little bit more and work with different producers, but the majority of it (J. Cardim) will do because he’s in-house, so we work closely together,” said Chief C. “He’s got a lot of heat, he’s one of the best producers hands down. I can say that and really mean it, not just because he’s my friend. Other people feel this way too, he’s really one of the best.”

On their label, local conglomerate Respect and Power Records, co-run by J. Cardim and Cambridge rapper G-Eyez:

“We’ve definitely got good backup,” said 24-year-old Young Don, real name Jose Fuentes. “That’s what makes us strong as a team and as a unit, that we’re all on the same page. Nobody’s going left, nobody’s going right, we’re going straight.”

On stepping up promotional efforts for “Set the City on Fire”:

“Last time the music was out and we did a little promotion, but we weren’t seen,” said Chief C. “We weren’t visible, we didn’t make a hard enough impact. And that was our fault. We’ll take the proper steps to do what we need to do so everybody at least hears it, and then from there you can make your judgment on whether you like it or not. As long as you hear it, then our job’s done.”

On the friendship between CG’z members Chief C and Young Don:

“We go way, way, way back, and then to be doing music, we really believe in each other,” said Chief C. “We’ve got the same goal. And when you’ve got somebody who’s got the same goal, you’re on the same page at all times, you can just move forward towards that goal.”

“Outside of music, just life in general, this is really my best friend,” Chief C added. “So that’s what makes it so special with the group. We’ve really been through it.”

On Young Don’s 18-month stint in jail for dealing drugs, which ended this May:

“Him going to jail made me realize how much I needed him,” said Chief C. “It’s not the same with only one of us out here doing the work.”

On what it means to be Certified:

“It’s not part-time, this is our life,” said Chief C. “So at the end of the day, you’re certified when you put your all into it. When you dedicate your life to it, then you’re certified. That’s what we’re in the process of doing … Even when we’re not in the studio we’re at other places writing, going to radio stations, we’re going to New York, we’re doing shows, we’re just working. If a day goes by and we’re not working then something’s wrong. So that’s how we look at it. Every day you gotta wake up and look forward to doing something with music.”

On coming up out of the struggle:

“It was crazy, you just go through those hard times wishing things could be better,” said Young Don. “You ain’t got nothing. You’ve got one thing that you’re good at, and that’s all you’ve got. You just hold onto it and try to make something out of it.”

For those who like to get crunk for a good cause, the Boston Unplugged Concert Series returns with its fourth charity show on Thursday, Oct. 15 at Mantra Nightclub, this time to benefit youth through A Better Chance.

Doors will open at 9 p.m. The lineup includes a mix of electro-pop, r&b and pop performers including Solie featuring BR, Duncan Daniels, Lorenzo, and Renee Marcou. Following the performances, DJ Joe DelBuono will spin a mash-up of hip-hop, rock, soul and house.

A Better Chance (ABC) works in conjunction with educational institutions across the nation to provide opportunities for motivated, underprivileged students to excel. After graduation, each scholar is able to look forward to a college degree and the chance to make a meaningful contribution to their communities and the society as a whole.

Among ABC Alumni is Gov. Deval L. Patrick.

Sponsored by Forty8 Three Films and Eilos Events, the charity affair will also host a VIP Reception for ABC Alumni, host committee members and special guests.

Sponsorship opportunities and pre-sale tickets ($10) are still available. Admission at the door is $20. Contact co-host and event manager Solonje Burnett at eilosevents@gmail.com or (617) 216-7470.

Mantra is located at 52 Temple Pl. in Boston.

Maxwell admirers can get their drool on this Wednesday at the House of Blues in Boston…for free!

The “sexy ambassador of soul” performs live as part of the Samsung AT & T Summer Krush series on Wednesday, Sept. 2. Doors open at 8 p.m. and the show begins at 10 p.m.

Although the show is free, you do need tickets to get in; log on to www.samsungsummerkrush.com or listen to JAM’N 94.5 for giveaways.

Maxwell recently dropped “BLACKsummers’night,” the first installment in his forthcoming BLACKSUMMERS’NIGHT trilogy, so expect to hear some new songs as well as old faves. See you there!

For the record, I’ve never seen a line like the one I saw outside Rumor last Thursday night. The occasion? Donnie Wahlberg’s 40th birthday party, presented by the lovely ladies at Imondalist PR. The outcome?  A mob of people that stretched the entire length of Warrenton Street, waiting to gain entry and chill with the New Kid on the Block/Middle-Aged Pop Star. Wahlberg arrived just before midnight and sent the venue a-screaming as he chit-chatted with the audience, posed for pics and shared the DJ booth with JAM’N 94.5’s Roy Barboza.

Granted, D. Wahl’s actual birthday was August 17, he had already celebrated at Mohegan Sun, and was apparently flying to Texas for a party the following day, but roughly half of Boston’s female population (and a few dudes sprinkled in for good measure) didn’t mind party-sharing their hometown hero.

No sign of any fellow New Kids or younger brother Mark Wahlberg. That may have been too much for the crowd to handle!

Here are some extras from my feature story on Cambridge rapper Millyz, who passed me his debut street album “Whiteboy Like Me” in traffic. For a taste of his music, check the video for “Out on a Limb.” (below)

On his car-to-car promo method of handing out CDs:

“I kind of do that regularly,” Millyz said. “I do that if I’m in the mood. Like I get hyped some nights and I’ll stop my car in the middle of traffic, I’ll make everybody wait, whatever it is.”

On the obstacles he’s faced and how they influence his music:

“I think that’s all part of the big story, everything I went through,” he said. “Because now that I think back about it, when I was going through all that pain and suffering and the dumb stuff that was going on around me, I didn’t know that was actually gonna contribute to the story I tell later on. I thought it just sucked that I was a little misfit bad kid, but then it actually, boom - blossomed to a story I could tell in my music that people could relate to from Harlem to Maine.”

“And I’m glad it’s like that instead of being like the rest of these rappers who get a deal and catch their first case and then they become problems to society,” he said. “Like nah, I’m going the opposite way. I’m going from negative to positive for real.”

On stepping up the business end of his game:

“I had to learn the business more,” he said. “I learned the hard way that you can’t just make a good song and think that’s it. Songwriting and being talented is like 40 percent of the actual makeup of the industry. Because you see rappers who are horrible, but if their grind is good, they’ll get farther than I will writing great songs.”

On his mindstate and where he’s at career-wise:

“Some days you feel like ‘I’ma blow up tomorrow’ and some days you feel like never,” he said. “I’ve been feeling more like tomorrow recently, where I went through a period of like ‘Yo, like this ain’t real.’ It’s just been getting more real to me.”

On being a white rapper and the title of his CD:

“I forget, and then I’m reminded, that’s why I made a permanent reminder to myself by calling my CD ‘Whiteboy Like Me,’ you know,” he said. “I just wanted to address that issue early.”

“When I go certain places, they’ll just be surprised to see my movement and how people support me or just surprised that there’s a white rapper who does his thing like me,” he said. “That sounds crazy, I don’t want to sound like that. It’s just not that big (of a deal). Like everybody out here knows, that’s fine. It’s just when I go out of state, people will be more surprised by it, I guess, more taken aback when I approach them with a CD, more like wondering ‘Yo, what is this, what’s this gonna be about?’ Out here, they already know.”

“Some people look at you funny, like you’ve got to kind of win them over and prove that you’re nice I guess, but nowadays everybody has to do that because there are so many rappers,” he said. “So it doesn’t affect me as much as one would think, not in a negative way at least. I think it more surprises people to see how soulful my music is. I was either gonna call the CD ‘Whiteboy Like Me’ or ‘Blue-Eyed Soul,’ but ‘Blue-Eyed Soul’ sounded too much like my greatest r & b hits, so I stayed off that.”

On why he chose music as his career path:

“I figured I don’t have too many options,” he said. “I’m a SPED kid. School didn’t work out for me in the least bit. I barely graduated eighth grade, then I got kicked out of Cambridge Rindge and Latin halfway through my freshman year. I ended up going to a SPED school in Charlestown, with like 22 kids with issues, so school was never that promising for me and music just fit me, like that’s what I wanted to do.”

On the content of his music:

“I think the rappers that overglorify all the negativity have never been through the negative stuff to know that it’s poison,” he said. “My best friends are doing life. Like there’s nothing nice about violence and all of that. It’s for real. It’s like a ripple effect, you know when you throw a big stone in the pond, that’s what it is. Dude who got killed wasn’t the only person who felt that. Like you ain’t never been in that courtroom seeing the mother cry not having a son … It’s not really cool to glorify it like that because it’s a reality. In my raps you’re gonna hear about drugs and guns and the streets and trouble, but you’re gonna hear the reality of it too. You’re gonna hear about the cause and effect. It’s a little different. I get the chills when I’m writing a verse, like it’s for real.”

Here are some extras from my interview with Flash and Knuckles of NBS (Natural Born Spitters), who recorded “CPD” in response to the Gatesgate saga:

On Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.’s lack of involvement in the community:

“Louis Gates, I just know him from being the token black dude who’s just kind of basically a sellout,” said rapper Knuckles. “He never came in the community. He’s such a prominent figure, you would expect him to be in the teen centers sometimes, giving speeches or helping people get into Harvard … Mr. Gates, I haven’t seen him in the community at all speaking to these kids. So it’s like you know, you’re so successful man, like help some people out.”

“So as for the Gates situation, you’re complaining about this arrest, yet at the same time what are you doing for the kids who are just graduating high school?” Knuckles said. “Are you offering them any type of Harvard summer program that they can do, or offering yourself classes to even tell these kids about where you came from and what you accomplished?”

“It’s like, what are you guys doing aside from worrying about apologies?” said Flash. “Gates, what are you doing aside from worrying about this arrest that happens to us all the time?”

On Cambridge police officer Sgt. James Crowley’s history:

“This dude is the guy who teaches racial profiling,” Knuckles said. “So it’s like there’s problems all over the place. You’ve got the teacher doing the profiling. And he’s been arresting black males for little to no reason for all of his career. Don’t get me wrong, he probably has some legit arrests of course, but it’s like come on, you’re a profiler teaching racial profiling.”

“When you look at Crowley’s history,” Knuckles said, “it’s like this dude has been locking black males up for nothing to the littlest things. Yeah, he’s probably got some good cases too. But he targets black males.”

On ego-tripping being at the root of the Gates-Crowley power struggle:

“Both of them are power-tripping,” said Knuckles. “It’s just like battle rapping. ‘I’m the man because you dropped the charges and Obama said you were acting stupidly.’ And then (Crowley’s) like “Nah, I’m the man because I didn’t apologize to neither one of you and I had a beer with Obama and said that he’s just a regular dude, so who’s the man now?’”

On why they recorded the song:

“I mean there’s not too many offerings out here for us, especially now with the recession going on,” said rapper Flash. “It’s very hard to get a job and both of us being college graduates, fortunately we have things we can do outside of the music to get income aside from doing whatever other kids out here doing to survive. So we have that fallback plan, which is good for us. So it’s good to talk about what’s going on, not only for our sake, but for those other kids that can’t get it out there, whatever. So we just want people to know like listen, it is CPD because it’s what’s going on and it’s the current events, but it’s also every police station, everywhere.”

“So at the end of the day it wasn’t a police bashing. I think everybody got a little piece of it,” Flash said.

On a solution to the issues that underlie Gatesgate:

“Everyone wants to take a side. What happened? Who’s wrong? Instead, everyone should just be coming together for a better cause, like let’s just get rid of the nonsense,” said Knuckles.

“A real solution doesn’t just involve the people who were in the situation,” Knuckles said. “You need the people from the community, people who have been proven victims of racial profiling, proven victims of false arrest, proven victims of being imprisoned and then being released because they were innocent, all the key people need to sit down and have a meeting … People who actually go through this stuff every day. And then sit down and talk about what we need to do to make it better.”

“Obama, Gates and Crowley aren’t the keys to solving this issue,” Knuckles added. “It’s the oppressors and the oppressed, it’s everybody. And if everyone can’t sit down and talk about it then nothing’s gonna change. That meeting with the beer did nothing.”

Here are some extras from my recent interview with Jay Leno, who stopped in the Hub on Tuesday for some funny business:

On whether 17 years as “Tonight Show” host was getting monotonous:

“No, I love doing it, it’s a great job,” Leno said. “It’s the best job in TV, I love doing it. And now we’ll have some elements of that combined with some new elements. I don’t think this would have worked 10 years ago. There really hasn’t been a successful show launched on any network in the last 10 years. The last I think was CSI: Miami and that was 2002. For some reason people don’t seem to be watching these dramatic murder shows at 10 o’clock.”

On the flavor of his new gig, “The Jay Leno Show”:

“We’re trying to get into the immediacy of television,” he said. “Television that’s really successful now is TV that happens right now, you know, ‘American Idol,’ some of these dance shows, other stuff. Shows that are taped six, eight weeks in advance don’t fare so well because people don’t feel there’s any spontaneity to it and that’s where I think we can do OK. We’ll be on 46 weeks a year, our competition shows are only 22 weeks a year, I mean I don’t expect to beat them against originals, but maybe we can catch them on the reruns. That’s sort of the plan.”

On whether he’s excited to launch the new show:

“I think it’ll be a challenge,” he said. “I’m not like a really excitable guy. You know, you do this long enough, it’s a bit like relationships. You go into them cautiously optimistic - I hope this works, she doesn’t seem crazy, I hope it’s OK. I’m not one of those people that falls head over heels in love and then gets terribly depressed. I tend to go into it – you know, you put together things you think will work and my attitude has always been, can this make money for other people and be successful? Then it’ll sort of be successful for me. And that’s kind of the way I go into it, like it’s a business and that’s what I’m doing here. We’ve taken elements that I think work from the ‘Tonight Show,’ combined them with a lot of new elements and we’ll see what happens.”