The New Prerequisite For Rappers: TV Interview Skills
I’ve now decided that there is another skill an aspiring rapper must master before he/she can truly become a superstar: the mainstream media interview. No disrespect to the Shade45′s, the Angela Yees, the Miss Infos, the Pete Rosenbergs or even the Vlad TVs, but when a rapper does an interview with a hip-hop station or in the recording studio with a handheld camera, there’s a certain comfort level.
An ability to handle an interview on a news program such as 60 minutes with a Bob Simon, Barbara Walters or a Wolf Blitzer separates those who are street smart and those who are actually, well, smart. When sitting in that kind of an interview, you need to anticipate the kinds of questions they will ask – which won’t be about your latest rap beef or when your mixtape is coming out. They likely have done their research.
You also need to game out how the interviewer will react to the answers you give. The dreaded follow up question. Politicians spend weeks prepping for major interviews. They do mock interviews, conduct research, anticipate every question they could possibly be asked. When they sit down for a primetime interview with mainstream media (CBS, Fox, MSNBC) that’ when we see who really has the intelligence and confidence to be a superstar. Ask Cam’ron.
Sure, he got props for his willingness to uphold the code of the streets to not snitch to the police, but when the Silver Fox took it one step further and asked him about turning in serial killers, dude just looked like a clown. Not a lot going on up there.
Now, superstar of the minute Lil Wayne, in preparation for the Grammys, has sat down with anchor Katie “Ms. Katie” Couric to do one-on-one. Weezy needs a media coach.
“I’m a gangster, and gangsters don’t ask questions” will go down as the dumbest response to a legitimate question from a legitimate journalist. I would guess, Wayne, that real gangsters also don’t play guitars, wear tight red jeans or do interviews with Katie Couric, unless its from behind bars. But I digress.
If you’re a rapper doing this kind of an interview, you’re smart enough to have played the rap game well enough to warrant such an interview. Act accordingly. You don’t need to change who you are, but you can definitely avoid looking like a Class A moron. As Weezy ably demonstrates, watching a Tom Cruise interview and trying to copy him just makes you look even more awkward than usual. If he was already intoxicated, maybe his crew should have upped the dosage. At least he could have gone for the “self destructive artist” play.
With all the white people money up for grabs if an interview goes well, its a good look on a rapper to put as much effort into a big interview as they do spitting out a freestyle over some random DJs mixtape. Heads may think you sold out, but at least the price was high.
Wow cam let the team down there he sounded like a idiot in the justification of why he would have a serial killer next to him. Here is why i would call the cops if i was him. because the serial killer wouldnt live next to me. He would have moved do to a .50 cal desert eagle in his face. There is a reason why the areas where biker gangs have there head quarters around rarely see crime like break in rapes home invasions…
Indeed. You don’t sh*t where you eat, but even still – Cam just didn’t think that answer through, which is probably why he shows up on camera wearing boxers and wears pink fur coats.