MVRemix: Tell us about 'The Great Escape� album.

Hot Karl: You mean we can�t talk about other shit? (Laughs). You know, I went through a lot of shit. I�m on like my 3rd record deal now. At this point, I just want to be heard. I�m not stressing about what will fit on the radio or what will be on the new Clue tape. I�ve been through that already. It didn�t fell comfortable for me and it didn�t work. At this point, my whole goal with Hot Karl was to create something that felt like you were talking to me for an hour. I�d rather you just get the idea of you hanging out with me. I wanted that to come off in the record. I wanted to hit all of the genres that I was excited by or I grew up listening to. I also wanted to incorporate some of the people you haven�t heard from in a while, at the same time. This means MC Search and Dave Gosset and even, Justin Warfield. People like you and me think, 'Where is Justin Warfield?� That�s something we would talk about when hanging out.

MVRemix: How did you get involved with Headless Heroes?

Hot Karl: Headless Heroes is owned by BBE. We deal with the same infrastructure.

MVRemix: Did 'The Great Escape� come out the way you wanted?

Hot Karl: Yeah. The thing is, at this point in the game, I�m not stressing. There are songs on there that definitely needed to be on the record.

MVRemix: Do you have a favorite song on 'The Great Escape�?

Hot Karl: I will always like 'Butterface� because it is so different from the other stuff on the album. It also represents what I have been doing in hip-hop for the past 10 years.

MVRemix: For the 9th Wonder produced track, 'I�ve Heard�, you write about how he didn�t want you on the track. Tell us about that.

Hot Karl: Eddie, who works close with Little Brother through BBE, helped out. 9th Wonder�s beat CD came to me while I was putting together this record. I thought he was so ill. I had the same feeling when I heard the Kanye West�s beat CD 5 years ago. I had the same feeling. I immediately began writing all of this shit. Eddie called him to see if the beat was sold. He was ready to sell the beat to Hot Karl and we sent him a CD with a bunch of music. I think the MC Search song was on there. 9th didn�t like it. I don�t hate on him for doing that. I�d do the same thing if I was a producer. I�m not offering him a ton of money. 9th didn�t really feel it. Eddie told me, 'Don�t worry, I�m gonna work on him!� I didn�t want that and I was ready to go to someone else. As I hung up the phone, Eddie gave me a weird inspirational sentence when he said, 'Well man, that�s what you�re gonna run into.� I just hung up the phone, heard the beat CD again, and thought 'That�s the shit that I needed to get out.� All of that shit needed to get out on that record. All of that stuff has not been addressed on record before. There are things on that record that I haven�t told people, like the thing about Timbaland or anything else.

MVRemix: When I talked to you before, you remarked about Kanye West�s comments about George Bush. What did you think about his statement about Hurricane Katrina?

Hot Karl: You know, my girlfriend�s father was there in New Orleans. He�s a part of FEMA. He�s a doctor and he�s out there on emergency services. I decided that I would not make total opinions about it because I�m not sure what to trust. I�m waiting till my girlfriend�s father gets back. What Kanye said seems somewhat true. He�s pretty extreme about it, but there�s got to be some truth about what he said. Doing it at a telethon is pretty tacky. Why did he do it in such a weird situation with Mike Myers next to him? He kind of sounded like a 6th grader doing a book report, rattling off the stuff so nervously. The guy says what he feels. Sometimes, it bothers me how egotistical he comes off, but at other times, I know that it�s really him. Before he was famous, we did a song together. It was before he even did 'Izzo� for Jay-Z.

MVRemix: Was the song you recorded with Kanye West created in the studio together, or was it done via the mail?

Hot Karl: No, in the studio. He didn�t even have a car yet. He took the subway. He wasn�t mailing any beats at that time. We actually became friends after that recording. When he came out to L.A., we�d go see movies and stuff. My manager, at the time, was trying to sign him to Capitol Records. Even when he wasn�t famous, and people didn�t want to hear that he was a rapper, Kanye was rapping 24/7.

MVRemix: What do you think of Kanye West�s new album, 'Late Registration�?

Hot Karl: Kanye will always work because of his beats. It�s funny. On his first album, the beats underwhelmed me. I didn�t feel them at first, but the lyrics really got me. Now, on the second one, I�m really impressed by the beats, but I think that his rapping is too breathy. I lose a lot of the punch lines. That�s how I meant Kanye. His rap sounded like that. He lost punch lines. It wasn�t because he had bad breath control. He has amazing breath control. I just think that he thinks it�s better the more breathy it is. It�s that Ma$e syndrome.

MVRemix: Some people think that when emcees start producing their own music, their music suffers. Do you agree?

Hot Karl: I think that is what happened to Eminem�s career. His production is horrible. It just sounds like a bad Xzibit song. It sounds horrible, but he would put it out and everyone would like it. All of his hits are Dre�s hits. Kanye too. All of the hits are Dr. Dre hits. The world loves them. The world loves Kanye.

MVRemix: On your EPK, Mack 10 talks about how Eminem has raised the bar for white rappers and has made it difficult.�

Hot Karl: I love that. Mack has been a friend of mine since college. He just drops so many gems of knowledge. It�s painful being around him. He says so many amazing things. I had nothing to do with the EPK. It originally started as a documentary. When Mack says that, it�s true. Even in this new Southern craze, Mike Jones comes out and then, Slim Thug, and then, Paul Wall. It�s funny because Paul Wall may end up selling the most of records. It�s funny because they aren�t really being compared to each other. That�s a weird thing. I�m being compared because my voice sounds similar in a broad stoke. I couldn�t hide my real voice. That�s one of the things I went through with Interscope. I could really make my voice deeper and address this kind of thing or I could be me and come off how I know I sound. As for the comedic thing, Eminem hasn�t been funny for years. I haven�t laughed at something he said for at least 3 years. No matter how much I could talk shit about Em or how our careers crossed or didn�t cross, all I know is that his music was great until his last album. That last album was God awful. I don�t know how or why it happened, but it didn�t even sound musical.

MVRemix: When Mack 10 offered you $50,000 cash to sign to Hoo Bangin Records, why didn�t you take it?

Hot Karl: He�s such a nice guy, but I didn�t take it just because of all of the horror stories that I�ve heard about the business. I didn�t want to be in a Bone Thugs-N-Harmony contract situation. Not only that, I didn�t see where I fitted in with Hoo Bangin�. At the time, The Baker Boys, the guys who I was getting on the radio with, said that they were getting many calls for me. They told me to ride it out for a second and see what comes up that may be better than Mack. Still, Mack 10 has always been my friend, so he never took it personal.

MVRemix: Do you think wealth changes the quality of music.

Hot Karl: I think that will change in 10 or 15 years from now, when hip-hoppers hit the end. The people who have bad taste in 70�s music still pay for every Aerosmith concert even though they are shitty and they haven�t sounded good in 10 years. The point is, the fans have loyalty. In hip-hop, there is no loyalty based in that kind of stuff. When I was in college, I would go to parties where Big Bad Hank was performing for $500 bucks. Pharoahe Monch is probably the best rapper of all time and the guy can�t get a fucking record deal!