Five contradictions from the best producer/MC to rep the 90210 (sorry, Brian Austin Green).

As told to Richard “Treats” Dryden I went to school with a lot of actors and rich people. You know, Angie Voight, who became Angie Jolie; Milla Jovovich, who used to go out with Seth from Crazy Town; Balthazar Getty; and Scottie Caan… But when you’re young and around all this money you just don’t think about it. I go back to Beverly Hills now, and that shit is ridiculous, what we grew up around.

I’ve worked without smoking weed to make sure I can. And when it’s time to promote, I try not to smoke. It puts you in kind of a catatonic state… But sometimes the weed puts you in a demented state of mind and you need that when you make beats. We tend to use it like gasoline, like,  “All right, we empty? Gotta get some more.”

Sometimes, Mobb Deep has had to flip on people [who have a problem with me being white]: “He’s one of us! I don’t give a fuck if he’s white or not!”… But the white and black thing wasn’t  automatic. Prodigy is one of the most skeptical people on the planet. For years, he thought I was an FBI agent sent in the form of a producer to infiltrate his circle.

Being Eminem’s DJ was bigger than being the Alchemist… But the best of my connection with Em hasn’t happened yet. He is intense these days as a producer. The way he writes his rhymes, that’s the way he’s making his beats. His sound is big and cinematic, mine is stripped-down and raw—I think it would make it dope, we’d meet somewhere in the middle.

I don’t think I get a response at all as a rapper. People don’t really know… But I’m confident in my ability to rhyme. I’m about to be 30. Girlfriend, kids, none of that shit is an issue to me. I dedicate every day of my life to doing this rap shit. So I think when people hear my album, they’ll go, OK, he’s giving us that.

Click here for the rest of our interview with The Alchemist that didn't make it into the November issue.

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