http://www.rapsearch.com/news/item-400.html

Do you recommend leaving education to follow your dreams?
I recommend that everyone take a systematic approach to achieving their dreams. If leaving education behind is what you need to do to make it work then so be it. However I believe education is very important and no one should use their dream as a scapegoat to not finish school. At the same time a lot of people are in school because they don’t know what they want to with their lives or they don’t know how to accomplish it or they need some sort of validation. I know exactly what I want to do, how to get there, and I don’t need validation. In my field of study there isn’t anything I couldn’t pick up a book and teach myself. I have a proclivity for all things computers and if I ever felt as though music isn’t going to work it wouldn’t take much for me to get a position or go back and finish my degree. Before I left school I was at a point where I was going half-ass at both my degree and my passion and my father told me I should just go hard on one or the other.

Have you recieved any major label attention? What would be an ideal situation for you?
Yeah in 2000 I was approached by a major label but I was on my “independent as fu**” kick back then and I wouldn’t return their calls. In 2002 another major label wanted to sign 4 emcees from my crew as a group, by then I was down but 2 of us weren’t with it so the window of opportunity closed. My ideal situation would be like what Ludacris or T.I. came into the game with. They sold X-amount of copies to garner major label attention so that gave them more bargaining power from the gate. I’d rather be dealing with the joint-venture instead of the bullsh** standard deal.

One of our aspiring interviewers, Visero wanted to know, “Do you think you’re making a big inpact on all of the Underground Hip-Hop or just the backpackers? And what will it take to reach the rest of your potential audience?”
Music is funny, you never know who is going to like yours or who it’s going to impact. A lot of the times I’ll play a song for someone and think they won’t understand it or feel my style at all and they turn around and tell me they really felt it. So I honestly don’t know who I’m making an impact on. I don’t look at it as the “Underground Hip-Hop” or “Backpacker” markets, the only way to survive this era of oversaturation is to forge your own market. That is what I’m attempting to do so I just make my music and do my shows and whoever likes it likes it. If i had to make an educated guess I’d say my average fan is either someone who is very much into the early new millenium battle scene or search’s for obscure Indie rap...so yeah backpackers I guess. But if you did a Venn-Diagram of my fans with say....Little Brother I don’t think there would be a lot in the middle. Whereas if you did one of mine with say Ghostface I think there’d be a lot.

http://www.raptalk.net/news/features/Raptalk.netExclusiveQAInterviewSessionWithiCONTheM.php

Dub MD: Whats your label situation like just now?

iCON The Mic King: I’m signed to Uprising Records, however I have a stipulation in my contract that says I can do anything else I want with whatever label I want during the course of my contractual obligation to them. So far they are doing a lot to take me to the next level but I want to see what else can be done.

Dub MD: Besides rapping are you planning to branch out into any other things besides doing rap music? movies? clothing?

iCON The Mic King: I’d be interested in acting but I’d want to do it right, hone my craft before I did anything. Clothing is also something I’d be into but it’d have to be something I’d be very hands on with, not like these other clothing lines rappers have just to attach their name to something. I definitely would have bought PNB had Nick Cannon not done it.

Dub MD: For your fans who haven’t seen you perform yet are you planning a worldwide tour anytime soon?

iCON The Mic King: If it was up to me, I’d perform 360 days a year and hit everywhere in the world. Every town, city, state. But really it’s not up to me, it’s up to whether or not these promoters believe I have fans in these locales. So if you want to see me anywhere, you have to share my music with your friends and you have to tell promoters you want to see me. I plan to see the whole world many times over with this music though.

http://www.artofrhyme.com/interviews/artist/Icon-the-Mic-King/17/

You got a 12” out right now called “King Me”?

Icon: Yeah, yeah. The 12” out right now is called “King Me”. B-side of the joint is “Reconize Kojak” ft. Poison Pen and my man KWOTE Scriptures. It’s not in stores, we just pressed up a certain amount of copies and I sell them on the road and on my website. People don’t buy vinyl anymore, so you gotta sell it directly if you want to make your money back.

True, record sales and CD’S have dropped significantly.

Icon: Yeah, especially records ‘cause a lot of heads have like Serato and things like that. So you don’t actually physically need to buy the record anymore. It’s more of a cumbersome task to get your hands on records anyway and then carrying them around and things of that nature, so a lot of people don’t see the point.

And:

You just came back from touring in Europe. Dos-Noun is the man behind that? How did it go for you?

Icon: Yeah my man Dos-Noun put that together. I want to say we did like 9 countries and 11 shows or something like that. No, no, no it was more than 11 shows, it was like 18 shows. We were out there for like three weeks. It was crazy. You know how everybody says they show a lot more love out there. Well they actually support byproduct. They want vinyl out there and stuff like that. It was a lot of fun out there, I would love to go back I’m trying to see what I can make happen on getting on a bigger tour over there. It was an overall success.

You mentioned the support differs out there compared to the US. How so?

Icon: It’s weird ‘cause sometimes I kinda feel silly because I’m up there and the people really don’t understand me? They’re really just responding to how loud I am and my arm motions nahmean? I’m a lyricist I put a lot of focus on what I’m writing and shit. So I feel like what’s the point? I feel like I could just be making sounds and they would respond the same way. For example we’ll issue a conditional statement like make noise if.... And before you get the “if” out they’re already making noise ‘cause that’s all they understand. So you kinda feel silly doing that. But I mean overall it’s more fun because they’re live no matter what, as long as you can rap.

...feeling stupid cuz I just asked him that exact question...so much for doing my homework.

http://www.hip-hopkings.com/interviews/news-49-0-3-3--.html

HHK: You have a very long resume of well known artists you have rocked the crowd with, but if you could handpick well known producers to work with who would they be and why?

iCON The Mic King: You know what, when I was younger I was all about the name game man. I always like “yo I should get XXXX on my record, heads will really check for me then!!!” But the older I got the more I realized there is very little value in that. First of all people don’t really buy albums period, let alone for features. If anything they will download that one song and listen to that rapper’s verse or that producer’s beat and delete it after they hear it. So really the best music comes from heads that you have relationships with and value the song as though it is a work of art that they WANT to be involved with not just because you paid them. Let me not lie, I love a lot of producers music especially heads like Alchemist, Ayatollah, Blockhead, Primo, Stoupe, Kanye West, Just Blaze, Bink!, etc etc but until I develop a relationship where we’re on the same page with them I wouldn’t want to step outside of the heads I’ve already built with in the past. In answer to your question, all those cats have make that epic, cinematic sound that I want to be known for.

HHK: As a success yourself, what advice would you give to other artists still trying to get to a place in Hip-Hop they can be happy with? I understand some artists wanna be on MTV and BET everyday while others would much rather be respected as true artists of the art form known as Hip-Hop. Only very few are able to do both so which means more to you? Your thoughts to that two-part question.

iCON The Mic King: Wow, I can’t believe you call me a success but I’m so happy to be here man, wherever here is. My advice to other artists is to never stop dreaming but have a set of realistic goals that you can systematically attain so you never feel like you just standing still and not moving forward. At all costs maintain your artistic integrity because if no one respects you, it doesn’t matter how far you go it won’t even be worth it. An artist like Common is proof that you can hold on to what you believe in your music and eventually make it to the ultimate success. As far as myself I’d love to be on BET/MTV with that platform and be rocking stadiums and things of that nature, but I’d also be happy selling 50,000 copies of every album I drop and rocking sold out clubs. Either way it has to be on myown terms.

http://www.ballerstatus.com/article/features/2007/11/3639/

BallerStatus.com: Some artists say that the album as a complete entity is dying a slow death, and that in the future it will be a single dominated culture. In the Third Renaissance will the album still be pertinent?

iCON the Mic King: Absolutely because I understand what they’re saying about things becoming single based, but I think that’s going to push heads to actually work harder to make their albums. With everybody dropping singles as ringtones, or tracks for car commercials, the creative album will be much more appreciated. It’s a cohesive work of art. You won’t just have two good songs on the album, every one will be solid.

And:

BallerStatus.com: Is that when you decided to pursue being a rapper on a full time basis?

iCON the Mic King: Yeah it was 2002, and I went on my first tour. It was called “Spring Break Your Neck Tour” and from then on, I felt I had to do it full time. Another semester went by and it felt like I was running in place. I talking to my dad and he knew I was half-assing in school and he told me to pick one or the other. I was like “Yeah I can go to school anytime. I could be forty going to school.”

BallerStatus.com: Did it make you humble touring like that and spreading the word at times by yourself? What was you first big break?

iCON the Mic King: The first break was when I got a 12 inch deal and that was one of the biggest records I’ve been involved with. That made me more official than that dude running around battling everyone.

BallerStatus.com: I’ve heard some stories about your ego, is that just with your music or are you arrogant all the time?

iCON the Mic King: (laughing) Let’s put it this way. I’m the oldest male on both sides of my family as far as my generation goes. My family expects a whole lot from me. They’ve always put me on a certain level. When I was born, my great grandmother told everyone that I was the chosen one. I’ve always had that label on my shoulders. My family really believes in me. I developed a confidence of myself because my family had showed me so much love. I don’t even see it as an ego thing, but sometimes that’s the way people take it. I just happen to believe in myself that much. When I get asked about what I do, I’ll tell people that I love what I do, it’s great. I guess some people can take that the wrong way.

http://www.philaflava.com/q&a;.htm

PhilaFlava: What has prevented you from having the career you would have liked in 2007?

iCON The Mic King: Shit. That’s a great question. I wish I knew. I wish I knew why I feel like my album was dead in the water. I wish I knew why I haven’t gotten enough shows this year. I wish I knew why I’m not an internet media darling. All I can do is keep working until things match my projection. That’s also why I didn’t go ahead and put my solo debut with Uprising because I knew the release fanfare around the release wouldn’t live up to my expectations. It doesn’t have as much to do with them as it does with me essentially being a “new” artist to all those people who only know what Pitchforkmedia force feeds them. A lot of it has to do with me (up til recently) continuing to believe in meritocracy. Where if you do good people will notice you will get to go further. All the elite emcees I came up around believed in that so we never tried to go and make friends with people so we could get ahead. I thought that was how you did it so I was never one of those guys who went out to every event to shake hands and smile. It’s all about those relationships you create though. So hopefully in the future the relationships I’m building will help me move forward.

PhilaFlava: Your most recent tour was with Souls of Mischief. How was that? Did you learn anything from them in terms of the business. Any good tour stories?

iCON the Mic King The tour was great! We had some really good shows especially in Chicago and in Florida. Those guys have it down to a science. Much love and respect to the whole Hiero Emporium. Tajai is very knowledgeable on the business side of things and it just felt real official to be on the road with veterans of the game. They showed me a lot of love and I’m going back out with them in July. All of them dudes had birthdays in the same 2 week period on the tour so I guess you could say we were a mobile party (laughs). I’m not really at liberty to put their business in the streets though. The wildest thing that happened was this one kid got stabbed in his neck with a broken bottle in Sarasota. Shout out to that dude, hope you doing aight kid.

PhilaFlava: Without a doubt I believe the internet is responsible for the decline in hip-hop. Yet without the internet many of the groups we have today wouldn’t exist. My question to you is, if you could go back in time, would you do without the internet knowing that hip-hop would have continued on the same path it was on in the mid 90’s or would you have given it up for the current state its in today, just so many people could have a career?

iCON the Mic King As much as we as rappers try to make money want to hate on the net, the internet made all of us. The internet put us in contact with each other and essentially sped up a lot of our growth and a lot of us in touch with the emcees that would influence us. So it’s really hard to say because it’s a double-edged sword. It’s great in a way because it’s eventually going to level the playing field between the majors and the indies but it’s also going to level it at a much lower potential to make money. I would love for the saturation of the market to not exist but at the same time there’s a lot of rappers that I enjoy that may have never existed had their been no internet so I really can’t answer that Catch-22. There should be a panel that issues Rap Licenses so if you’re not a level 8 or above you can’t rap in public. That would fix everything.

http://ugsmag.com/interviews/icon-the-mic-king/

What question do wish people would ask you?

In general, not just with me, I’d like to see hip hop journalism take itself more seriously. I get a lot of cookie cutter interview questions where it’s like the interviewer clearly didn’t have much interest in the subject. When “Mike and the Fatman” came out the interviewers kept asking me about battling when I’d been retired for four years!!! If I did interviews I’d sift through every bit of available material on the person and basically ask everything that’s never been asked. I’d feel like I shouldn’t be interviewing the person if I didn’t truly care because otherwise it is a disservice to the reader and the artist. With that said I wish someone would ask me direct questions about my music. It’s easy to ask me about the sensationalized things around me, I wish people would listen to rhymes and ask me about the actual music.

And obviously:

http://www.audiblehype.com/diy/entry/audible_hype_interviews_icon_the_mic_king/