Interview: Waka Flocka Flame – Hip-Hop Artist

Date of Interview: 11/29/2010

2010 was an incredible year for Juaquin Malphurs. After a rocky start, which included a January robbery and shooting, the future of his career became slightly uncertain. But in spite of this setback, the underground buzz from “O Let’s Do It” boiled to uncontainable levels, and slowly but surely, Waka Flocka Flame became a recurrent name on the hip-hop scene.

To date, all of his singles have all attained moderate success of Billboard’s “Rap Songs” chart: “O Let’s Do It” (#7), “Hard in the Paint” (#20) and “No Hands” (#1). In addition, all of his official remixes have featured an all-star cast of fellow rappers – from Diddy and Rick Ross to Gucci Mane and T-Pain. In honor of these tremendous achievements, Wacka Flocka was nominated at BET’s Hip-Hop Awards under the “Rookie of the Year” and “Best Club Banger” categories, and MTV recognized him as the eighth hottest MC of 2010.

In the midst of a promotional campaign for Flockaveli, Waka Flocka managed to squeeze some time out of his busy schedule and settle down for an interview with Clayton Perry – reflecting on the influence of Machiavelli, the importance of authenticity, and the media’s misconceptions about “flocka” music.

Interview: Dr. Jason King – Cultural Critic and Distinguished Professor

Date of Interview: 11/14/2010

Dr. Jason King is the Artistic Director of The Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music, an innovative leadership institute for aspiring young music entrepreneurs at Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. An associate professor and the founding faculty member of the program, he has been teaching classes on the music business, music technology and pop music history for the last ten years. His pioneering approach to teaching hip-hop in the classroom has been profiled on MTV, BET, and AOL. Dr. King has also given lectures on popular music at various universities, including Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, Yale, Columbia, and MIT.

In celebration of the publication of “Michael Jackson: An Appreciation of His Talent” in Da Capo Press’ Best Music Writing 2010 compilation, Dr. Jason King squeezed some time out of his busy schedule to conduct an interview with Clayton Perry – reflecting on changes in the field of music journalism, the emergence of the “global pop star,” and the future of music production.