Rapasaurus Rex

What else are you working on?
The most recent thing I've finished, which I'm hoping to get out by the end of the year, is I produced an album for the Souls of Mischief. It's been a challenge. I haven't worked on producing a whole group on an album in a long time. I kind of drew from a lot of styles from the early '90s.

The golden era.
Yeah. I hate to say "real hip-hop," but if you're really into stuff of that era, because that's what I try to draw from, I think you'll like this album a lot.

I hesitate to ask, but people talk a lot about the State of Hip-Hop Today. And every year someone writes the "death of hip-hop" story. What's your take? What excites you and what depresses you?
Back in the day I used to take hip-hop very personal. Being from Stet, I was in the era of proving that hip-hop wasn't a fad. [Laughs] It was the movement of the youth and blah blah blah. Once I saw I couldn't really change things, I just threw my hands up and said, "Eh." It's not like I don't care about it. But when everybody's like, "What do you think about hip-hop?" I get agitated. It is what it is. I do what I do. And I don't change it.

Would the Stetsasonic-era Paul be surprised to see what a business it's become?
I would be probably happy in a way, just because of the financial gains but sad in the way that creativity is just at a minimum. I have a son who's 16, so I get a chance to see when his friends come over, through him, what they like and what they don't like and why. For me, honestly, a lot of stuff now isn't really hip-hop. It's a derivative of hip-hop.

What do you mean? It doesn't have the spirit?
To me it lacks the spirit. It lacks where you're coming from. I'm not saying all of it; I'm saying a good majority of it. When we did it back in the day there was more passion, it was more, "I can make a better song." Now what I see as the drive is "We're going to make up a new dance and call it the whatever." It's all marketing. It's just kind of butchered hip-hop. So I'm not totally offended, just as long as I can pay my bills and the kids are happy and I can make the records I like to make and maybe sell two or three.

Do you watch " Run's House " at all?
Yes. It's funny. One thing that freaks me out is I identify with Run in his younger years as him being so cool. Now I see him, it's like, "Yo, he's a dad!" His kids look at him like, "Yeah, OK, whatever." And I'm like, "That's Run!" But he's not Run. So it is a process of us getting older and getting … older. [Laughs]