Malik-16: Sign Him!

Words By David Lopez

On an April evening at a Midtown Manhattan White Castle,( at the urging of the thrifty interviewer). Harlem bred emcee Malik-16 is posed with the questions who is and why should people care? He responds with the answer " I'm the best rapper you never heard of ." The journalist conducting the interview gives the rapper a look as to say " I've heard that one before, I'm not convinced, give me an original answer. " But as the young emcee continues to tell his story he begins to win over the pessimistic writer like a good prosecutor wins over a jury. With the distinction of being the first unsigned rapper with absolutely no industry representation behind him to ever spit inside the booth on BET's "Rap City" show, he’s earned his fair share of respect as a lyricist and performer.

He's currently on his "Somebody Sign Me," campaign, in an effort to get major labels to take notice that his talent is something that should be coveted. His Crazy 8's mix tape available for free download on his website http://www.malik-16.com/ may be enough proof that the majors need. He's confident that his talent alone will allow him to persevere and refuses to succumb to the politics of the game. As the journalist nears the end of his interview he starts to believe the rapper's opening statement. Perhaps he's "the best rapper that we never heard of," and one listen to his music will prove that "he's nice."

Malik-16's done a good job of convincing the writer, now he has the gargantuan task of making the rest of the world of hip hop believe. If this interview and his music is any indication, he's off to a great start.

Entertainmentonfire.com: Who the f*ck is Malik- 16??!

Malik- 16: Malik- 16 is the greatest rapper never heard... (that’s it)


Entertainmentonfire.com: Can you give me a little background, where’s he from and what does he like to Eat?

Malik-16: (Laughs) Even better, from Harlem born and raised but I have lived all up and down the East Coast. Been in Georgia, New Jersey, D.C. So I got a lot of outside influences but its still Harlem all day... And I remember being real fond of Shrimp Alfredo, when my ex made it... (laughs).

Entertainmentonfire.com: I’m sure your present girlfriend will appreciate that

Malik-16: Yeah, she will get on me about that later.

Entertainmentonfire.com: How was your experience in Atlanta?

Malik-16: I moved to Atlanta to work on a project with my boy Brandon Carter. We been working on it for 3 years, and its finally coming out. Back then, it was in its beginning stages and he had some connections out there. I was slow to move down there, but at that time I had started doing my song writing thing and he had started producing at the same time. He had found a talent out there through somebody he knew, who had a crazy voice. And they was like, we can get a demo and try and get a publishing deal with her. So I moved down there for the Spring of 2005 and worked on that demo for the whole Spring, and then we had to carry that on to when I moved back to D.C. That wound up being a learning experience.

Entertainmentonfire.Com: What came out of that?

Malik-16: We took the demo to multiple people, it was done on a low budget, so the sound quality was questionable. I took it to Mario’s first manager, I took it to Atlantic records, and some heads at Sony. The general consensus was that the quality was kind of shotty. The writing was good but nobody wanted to gives us that foot in the door. That was like my first foray into the song writing thing.

Entertainmentonfire.Com: How did that come about?

Malik-16: Me and Brandon Carter used to be a group in D.C.. We put out 2 mix tapes, home made, sold them straight to the people. Pressed em up, covers and all that. We hosted and opened for Fabolous at this big theater on the Howard University campus. I had a company with Brandon Carter, and one of the co-producers( Terence "The Politician" Anderson) of Sound Bwoyz who produced Juelz Santana’s "Whistle Song." We actually had a physical company called 4 alarm entertainment, things kind of went sour, so we went our separate ways, but I kept a working relationship with both of them. I told Brandon that I would help him finish up with his project because we started that when we had the company. So while I was helping him with his project I was working on the demo with the R&B chick... So that’s pretty much it.

Entertainmentonfire.Com: There’s so many rappers coming out of NYC right now, what sets you apart?

Malik-16: Because I’m Nice.

Entertainmentonfire.com: Every artist says that about them self.

Malik-16: I’m nice and I know what I’m doing. The point is that its good music.

Entertainmentonfire.com: What artists out do you feel are also making good music?

Malik- 16: You got the artists that are under the radar, but they got a good amount of publicity and they might be signed but more popular on the mix tapes. I like the cats that are not signed yet, but are on their way up. I think they got more hunger and I see more creativity in them.

Entertainmentonfire.com: Give us Some names

Malik-16: It ain't too many. New York rappers don't move me as much as others. All my favorite rappers at the moment got a "C" in their names; I'm feeling Chamillionaire, Common, Crooked I, and anybody with Carter in their government - ha!.
But as far as unsigned cats, I rocks with this kid from upstate called Shak-c and the boy A.Pinks.
Basically, I like anybody that makes me rewind right now. Anybody that’s flexing that creative muscle in they brain and not one dimensional at this point in time.
Either that, or if its entertaining as hell and its not hurting nobody, I’m all for it.

Entertainmentonfire.com: Who are Your Influences in rap?

Malik-16: Everybody, good or bad. I'm influenced by everybody because I'm a student of hip-hop. I read the magazines like a stock broker would read the Wall Street Journal. And I watch the videos like a broadcast journalist would watch CNN. AndI study my predecessors the same way. It's hard to call somebody wack, because I guarantee you that on anybody's album that there's at least something on there that's decent, that you can vibe with. No matter how wack you think an artist is, there's one track you can nod your head to. So I take that into consideration, and consider the fact that all these dudes are artists in their own right.

Entertainmentonfire.Com: What tracks should people be on the look out for?

Malik-16: There’s going to be some singles in the future but my street MP3, Internet single is "Dimelo," that’s my anthem for the year.

Entertainmentonfire.Com: Tell me a little about the Track?

Malik-16: The track was produced by my man J- Libre, Cedar Arms entertainment, part of my Uptown crew "The Balance," I had this track for about a year and some change now. It just came to my head. That’s what we say Uptown " Dimelo,". I got a lot of Dominican Crew, if you come around where they be, that’s probably what you’ll hear.

Entertainmentonfire.Com: Are you rapping in English?

Malik-16: Yeah, I'm rapping in English, but the hook is coining off a popular Spanish phrase.

Entertainmentonfire.Com: Can you tell us about the Rap City contest you won?

Malik-16: It was the first ever BET Hip-Hop awards, since it was the first ever, BET wanted to get a nice turn out. So they made little contests, there were other contests that went on as part of the promotional campaign, but this was the only one that involved hip-hop and the reason I did it is because I'd never seen a contest like that. Every other contest exploits the culture, is on a lower scale and kind of creates the stigma of you being a TV rapper. Like I never wanted to do "Freestyle Friday" because I noticed that rappers that come off of TV and those kind of competition settings don't get the same respect as an artist that will come out the old fashioned way. So, I liked this because it was like wam- bam you're in the Booth! 'Where did you come from out the blue?', and that's the reaction that I've gotten. People are like 'who is this cat?', some people still ain't seen it, so I'm still trying to get the word out, its still pretty new, when I saw it, I was like yo this is History. " I'm the first unsigned rapper ever in the booth." There's been a lot of other cats who have been on Independents or might have had a single deal or something.

Entertainmentonfire.Com: How does that make you feel knowing that you're the first unsigned artist to ever rap in the booth?

Malik-16: I'm the first!
Make no mistake, there were times when signed artists may have brought a member of their crew to rap, but those cats were apart of some kind of deal. I have no representation, I came out of nowhere, I got interviewed on the couch, Went in the booth and did a long ass freestyle. They wanted to cut me off - some of my shit did get cut off.. it makes me feel... more than anything that's what really killed it, and nobody can take that away from me and that's what I love about it!! And I love the response I got from people, the one thing I remember is that my man said "yo!, you looked like a "g" on there" and that's what I wanted. I didn't want to look like I was trying, because I do this! "I'm not new to this, I'm true to this!" - haha!.

Entertainmentonfire.Com: So what you trying do next?

Malik-16: The campaign is running now, its called "Somebody Sign Me." Every time you hear that or see that you know what I'm about and that's probably going to be the case until I am signed to a major urban commercial label that specializes in whatI do. And whatI do is that good music, that good hip hop. I do stretch the vocals out, I still do my songwriting and you might hear me crooning a little on a track every now and then but I'm not trying to be an R&B artist, it is hip hop, that's what I'm doing. You might see me right now, I've been on the Tape Masters joint, its called The N: Resurrection, it was a Nas mixtape. I was on a track called "The Cross Remix," my man John Shotti remixed that beat and threw me on there. Somebody took it upon themselves to go and make a youtube video out of that track actually. I've been on two compilation joints by my peoples School Of Beats out in (Washington) D.C its called Lesson 1: Orientation, Lesson 2: Validation you might of seen that. I'm on my boy A-Pinks new joint, you could actually check out that track that we did it's called "Colors," it's A-Pinks featuring Stimuli and Myself ( http://www.hiphopgame.com/ ). When I hit, it's going to hit. I got mad music coming! I'm still trying to build the name, you gonna see the elevation is step by step. And I do have the free mix tape out right now it's called the Crazy 8's. Checkout my website http://www.malik-16.com/ it's not a throw away mix tape, it's my favorite 8 songs of the last couple years that I've done. And I got a video for one of the tracks called " Be Right,".

Entertainmentonfire.Com: Is there room for you, with all the rappers coming out of Harlem?

Malik-16: Shout out to Harlem!!
I love it that we're noticed as one of the most populated regions now because I remember that used to be what i was burning for back in the 95', 96' era. I remember all the songs would shout out everybody except for Manhattan. Because Staten Island took the place of that, now you can't even get a shout out to Staten Island. It used to be big up to Brooklyn, big up to Queens, and they would either say Bronx or Uptown and mix Manhattan and Bronx together, and say Shaolin. Now you don't even hear Staten Island no more. Harlem is Number 2, it's Brooklyn and then Harlem. New York has always been like that, people either come to Manhattan or Brooklyn and those are the ones that they always talk about. No disrespect to the other boroughs but I love that we getting our shine now. And I think it has been a nice little representation, you got Dip-set, who you can't go anywhere without hearing about. But I see a lot of cats out there.;
You got Mook, you got Jae Millz, Even young kids like Webstar and Young B. We have those different facets, and as uniform as we are, I met so many different kind of people in Harlem that I know there's room for a different side. I know alot of niggas in Harlem probably looking at me like 'who the fuck is you??!!'
cause I'm nowhere near as visible as the other dudes who been putting in work.
I'm unknown in my own hood!
So what I'm giving is a whole different side, its street, its humorous, but its intelligent at the same time. Just know that I'm giving you a whole different side of Harlem. You can put me in the middle - I give you the most well balanced representation of Harlem. Not everybody is gangsta all day, and not everybody is Chicken Noodle Souping all day.

Entertainmentonfire.com: How did you get your rap name?

Malik-16: I used to have some wack rap names back in the day. When I was young I was in this rap group called Young Tribe and I use to go by Little Malik. AndI would always admire when cats used their real names in raps and I always wanted a reason to use mine soI was like how can I freak that? There was a time when I started calling myself M-16, but I was like you can't get far with a name after a gun but it was a metaphor for how I spit lyrics. So I wanted to keep that, and I still call myself M-16, but the official name is Malik-16. The 16 got it's representation because every body's always asking for your hot 16 bars. And I will embody that, I am the hottest 16. Every A&R and industry person i ever spoken with is like spit a quick 16, spit a hot 16. So I'll be that hot 16. 16 bars is the industry standard for a hip hop verse. And I'm telling you I'm the hip-hop standard.

Entertainmentonfire.com: Who is co-signing you? Any famous Rappers or Magazines?

Malik-16: I'm getting co-signed by the people, that's my campaign " Somebody Sign Me." The industry heads and magazines aren't going to realize it til later. I'm not here to beg for nothing . I'm going to make them like me... that's how it goes. The co-sign will come later. This interview is a Co-sign!! I remember when i was doing Rap City, I chopped it up with Jazzy Joyce the whole time, but nobody bumps something that's not already being bumped. You can't go expecting anything, but I'm not worried about that. That's coming. But as to why its interesting is because I'm one step away homey. Mark my words.

Entertainmentonfire.com: What makes you think you're not 2 or 3 steps away like a Double Dutch game?

Malik-16: (Laughs)..Because I walk fast and I step high.

Entertainmentonfire.com: Why is this interview going to be interesting to people who don't know you?

Malik-16: This interview is going to be interesting because I'm interesting, because I'm one step from everybody knowing what it is. And I want y'all to be a part of be making that one step. Like I said, I'm the hottest unheard rapper you ever heard.

Entertainmentonfire.com: Where do you want to see yourself in five years?

Malik-16: Accomplished, everything I set out to do... accomplished. On top homey, On Fire... I want to make my mark, make my brand and be on some body's top 5 list. Top 5 dead or alive.

Entertainmentonfire.com: Tell the readers what tracks they should look forward to and where they can find out more about you

Malik-16: First of all, make no mistake. This will probably be an ongoing interview because I want ya'll to see the progress as it goes. So I can have Entertainmentonfire.com check up on me every 3 months or so. We'll keep this going, especially as I have more to tell. If you go to my myspace page, MALIKSIXTEEN, you'll see some entertaining joints, I try to give you a well rounded side. You'll hear this joint called "What It Look Like (Aye-Yo!)" where I'm just breaking down the usage of the phrase "Aye-Yo." The history of it and its like native to New York. If you hear that then you know that somebody's a New Yorker. So I got cats from other regions that say they don't understand why we always say "Aye-Yo." So I broke it down and I took it cross country. Its an interesting little song, a little rocker. I'm a word play dude, if you had to tie me to anything it would be world play.

My Crazy 8's mix tape is what I'm promoting right now and I'll never take it down. That's my signature joint, that's what I'm pushing now. That's my introduction to everybody, I say before you buy any of my product i tell anybody to listen to that. I offer that to anybody who what's to know what my style is. You listen to that, and that is your walk through, 8 step syllabus to what Malik-16 is all about. You will never have to ask my what my style is - I can show you better than I can tell you.

Entertainmentonfire.com: Why not go the independent route? Do you really want to be signed by a major label that bad?!

Malik-16: Yeah, that's what its all about. That' the campaign. Don't be surprised if you see me on independent joints, I've been on independent joints. But That's the ultimate goal cause that's what gives you that nation wide exposure. And there's been a lot of cats that were hits locally and was making money but something still drove them to want to get signed. Because I know Mike Jones and Slim Thug and them was selling crazy units down there. Slim Thug said he was already Platinum down there but there's nothing like that nation wide exposure, where people in regions that you have no business in know you, people world wide know you, and that shit is priceless. And that's what it's all about.

Entertainmentonfire.Com: Any parting words ?

Malik-16: Shoutout to anybody in a position to make this happen. In the words of another Harlemlite (Loaded Lux) "Don't cheat yourself, treat yourself!" (Laughs).... Somebody Sign ME!! Yeah, and Shoutout to EOF!