MVRemix: So it all happened pretty fast?
MC Paul Barman: Actually it took about a year. He said, we’ll record in about a year. So I knew I had a year.
MVRemix: Would you describe your career as an MC as a gradual progression, like someone who wants to get strong so they go to the gym everyday and eventually gets stronger….
MC Paul Barman: Yes. I would say I’m on step 2 out of ten.
MVRemix: It seems to me that sex is a reoccurring theme in the majority of your songs. Would you say that your interest in sexuality is the drive of your music?
MC Paul Barman: No. When I look at the Cock Mobster cover I think that person is psychotic, there’s red testicles with white tusks, that shit is crazy. I basically have totally abandoned the sexual themes. A lot of friends and colleagues have had opinions on that.
MVRemix: Positive or negative opinions?
MC Paul Barman: Both. One comment that I can respect but is hard for me to deal with is, “come on, you gotta have one sex song on it.” Inspiration is a funny thing, if it’s not there, I don’t gotta have it.
MVRemix: Well, you do describe sex in a very comical way. Which could be appealing to a lot of people who find the actual act of sex absurd.
MC Paul Barman: Look at Seinfeld man, incredibly funny clean comedy, that is a monstrous talent. I think what was cool about the sexual stuff is the honesty, and I think the comedy just came naturally.
MVRemix: What has your relationship been with pornography?
MC Paul Barman: That is an interesting question. Holy shit. Presently I am ordering the pornography blocking for my computer, for myself. I believe that pornography will eat away your brain and is extremely bad for you. I say that because I feel pornography is extremely bad for me. Have you heard that people are now addicted to pornography. There was no addiction to pornography a hundred years ago.
MVRemix: Well, pornography was illegal for a while, and one fear was that children would read it.
MC Paul Barman: Well that being said, I think that of course it should be legal. Just like heroine and marijuana should be legal. Yo, this medicinal marijuana thing is a motherfucker. What’s medicinal marijuana like in Canada?
MVRemix: It’s complicated. Canada has gone through a series of attempts for full decriminalization. I mean, it’s weird up there with pot. There’s sort of a don’t ask don’t tell policy, kind of. like the Canadian police for the most part handle people smoking pot the way the US military deals with homosexuality. I’m not sure where they stand at the moment with medicinal marijuana.
MC Paul Barman: You know I recorded some dope shit in Toronto. By the way, for every moment of down time for that last show I did, when I wasn’t traveling or performing, we were in the lab. And I want to say big up to DanGer, and Boom Box studios.
MVRemix: So do you feel all drugs should be legalized?
MC Paul Barman: Probably. I’m not knowledgeable enough to feel comfortable answering like my answer matters. But my gut says, “which one should be illegal?”
MVRemix: It shouldn’t be criminalized, is basically what it comes down to.
MC Paul Barman: You know, thalidomide should be illegal. That’s one that comes to mind.
MVRemix: What is thalidomide?
MC Paul Barman: I forgot what the purpose of it was. But it ended up causing grotesque child deformity.
MVRemix: So back to pornography. Do you feel there’s a connection between comic books and pornography? Isn’t that kind of what your sex songs are like? Comic books of sexuality?
MC Paul Barman: That’s very interesting. I guess I’m that connection.
MVRemix: I don’t know how you’re going to take this question. But I was debating whether or not I should ask this, and I’ve decided to just ask you straight out. Do you see yourself as the Jesus Christ of white suburban Jewish kids in New Jersey who aspire to be MC’s?
MC Paul Barman: Only in the sense that I’ve occasionally had long curly hair and a beard.
MVRemix: Well do you see yourself as the savior of hip hop, or the savior of satirical hip hop?
MC Paul Barman: I hear some people judging the crème de la crème based on so and so never spit a wack verse. Some of my verses are better than others. I hear a lot of wack beats and a lot of worthless rhymes, and I’m striving to make classic material. That’s the only way I can answer that question.
MVRemix: On the song “Old Paul” you say, “have I made a mockery of a culture?” Which culture are you referring to, black culture or hip hop culture, and was it your intention to make a mockery, and do you see yourself as making a mockery?
MC Paul Barman: Hell no. It would take a pretty insane person to devote his heart and mind and time to making a mockery of anything. I never thought I was making a mockery of anything. I thought adding some fucking humor was bringing it back to its origins. When you say hip hop culture versus black culture, I mean, black culture is the superset that includes hip hop culture. Hip hop culture is still black. The culture I was referring to was hip hop and posing it as a question in that song, it wasn’t really coming from inside it was more like addressing it from the outside. And that being said, I don’t think “Old Paul” would give a shit about that type of offensive thinking anymore.
MVRemix: On April 23, 2000, the New York Times is quoted as saying, “'It’s Very Stimulating' is deliberately the whitest hip hop record ever made.” Do you agree with this statement? Did you deliberately make the EP the whitest hip hop record ever made?
MC Paul Barman: The New York Times is the whitest newspaper ever made.
MVRemix: On "It’s Very Stimulating", on the track with Princess Superstar, you say, “I’ll still be rhymin when I’m in your hymen.”
MC Paul Barman: I can’t imagine ever stopping rhyming. I’ll quote Doom, “Probably still be speaking in rhymes as an old fart.”
MVRemix: So you don’t see rap as having an age limit?
MC Paul Barman: No, hell no. All those people who are like, “I’m thirty I can’t rhyme anymore” confuse the hell out of me. You know, did you stop observing the world, did you stop learning new words? I learned a new word the other day. Blad. You got galleys, you got proofs, you got manuscripts, you got finish books, you got blads. It’s like a publishers sample of a book. It’s staple bound instead of a full book and has way fewer pages than the real one is going to have but it gives you the feeling of the book. I met this guy Noah, who was 23 from Guelph. Previous to that I thought it was shelf, self, and you know like Illadelph. Now there’s Guelph.
MVRemix: Last question. Fill in the blanks. My name is _________, and I’m here to say, I like big _________, and it goes this way.
MC Paul Barman: My name is Alex and I’m here to say, I like big dreadlocks, in a major way. [I have big dreads].
MVRemix: Any last thoughts or comments for your Canadian audience?
MC Paul Barman: Blame America.
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