He’s underground hip-hop’s Cameo King and the self-proclaimed “Holy Resurrection of Pun” but this September 23-year-old Termanology plans on making his own indelible mark on hip-hop with his debut album Politics As Usual. Featuring an all-star line up of Golden Era gods like Pete Rock and DJ Premier on production, the album promises to be must-cop material for fans of ‘90s style East Coast hip-hop. So while eagerly awaiting the video for “How We Rock” featuring Bun B, OnSMASH got with the this Boriqua from the Boston area to chop it up about his album, payin’ dues and being compared to Big Pun.
Interview by Good Money with the assist from Brawny Reyes!
Tell me about this Cameo King mixtape you put out a while back?
Yeah man, I had a bunch songs that I had did with other artists you know features. I wanted to put them out there for the world. I got the album coming but it ain’t out just yet. So I just wanted to keep feeding the fans with some good music. You get to see me spit with some of the best of them.
The track list for the mixtape was like 20 joints deep. How does some kid from Massachussetts end up collaborating with all these people?
Its hard work man. Bouncing around getting myself in the right position, meeting the right people, getting on tracks [and] killing it. A lot of people just like my style and wanted to work. A lot of DJ’s are throwing us together. Like DJ Statik Selektah will call somebody and be like “Yo I got this record, Terms on, it you want to get on it?” And they’ll get on it. They all came together differently. I got like fifty or sixty collabos. I just wanted to put some of the more famous ones on there I’ll definitely do a part two though.
How did your relationship with Statik start? That seems to be like your ace boon, you’re all over his album.
I met Statik when I was young, I was like 14 and he’s roughly the same age as me. He was already doing the DJ thing and we just kept bumping heads in Boston in the underground scene. [We were] doing little clubs like Middle East and then he ended up moving to New York so I started going out to New York to kick it with him. He would be like “Yo, I’m doing a mixtape with this guy, I could get you on it. You just gotta kill it.” So I’d kill it [and] then every mixtape he did it pretty much became like “I’ma do some exclusive track with Term.” After that it just became like a routine because the other artists liked the mixes he was making and liked the new records we were making. Whenever somebody was doing a tape with Statik it was like “you know I’m putting man Term on it, right?” and they would be like “yeah, no doubt.” So it just put me in a good position.
I’m going to put you on the spot real quick; out of all the collaborations you’ve done which one do you think is your favorite?
I like “Watch How It Go Down” the remix a lot because Lil’ Fame [of MOP] that’s my brother right there and he just killed it and it was dope to do a track with Papoose [because] I respect him as a lyricist. I just thought it was dope to do us three on the record. “Stop Look and Listen” with Styles P and Q Tip, that’s another one of my favorites because Styles P is like my favorite rapper. Styles P and Jay-Z are pretty much my favorite emcees. It was dope because a lot of people never get to do a record with they favorite rapper. And then Q-Tip I went on tour with him, he showed me mad love. It was just dope to do a record with true legends like that. One track that I did “Circle of life” with the kid Lee Wilson it’s a little bit more off the radar. People don’t know it because it’s not that famous but I did that for my daughter. It’s a record for my daughter and I just love it. He sang like a choir–like thing at the end with clappin’ and horns and all that and he sang my daughter’s name for like a minute beautifully. It was real crazy, so those are probably my top three.
First of all “Watch How It Go Down” when it came out people knew about Termanology but people were very surprised. It really got a lot of people’s attention. What do you think about the comparisons to Big Pun what did you feel about that comparison?
It’s great, it’s an honor. It’s obviously because I’m Puerto Rican, if I wasn’t Puerto Rican they probably would never say that.
You don’t think there’s any similarities stylistically?
There definitely is because I’m influenced by him, I’m heavily influenced by him. But the same style that Pun uses Kool G Rap was already doing it like ten years before that. So for that you could say I sound like Kool G Rap but nobody going to say that ‘cause Kool G Rap’s not Puerto Rican. It’s cool and I don’t mind it; obviously I don’t think I’m better than Pun. I think Pun is the greatest lyricist of all time in my eyes. I ain’t really trying to step in his shoes. The reference is more just saying I’m the most lyrical cat since Pun been around. “Cause ain’t nobody doing it like that for me. I think he was just the illest. But definitely it feels great when people say it. Sometimes I’ll go on MySpace and have like ten comments like “yo you the illest since Pun” or “yo you keepin’ Pun alive.” All the Spanish people they got my back, the Latin community. So it feels crazy.
Let’s talk about your album that’s coming out. The list of producers is crazy. Who’s going to be on the album in terms of production and tell me about how you got down with those people?
Ok, you got DJ Premier, he on the album probably about three times. You got Hi-Tek, Buckwild, Nottz, Large Professor, Alchemist, Havoc, Hi-Tek and Pete Rock. It’s pretty crazy man.
[Laughs] that’s crazy that’s like a hip-hop head’s fucking wet dream.
I seen the vision before anything. This didn’t accidentally happen [laughs]. It took a long time. It was my vision from the beginning. I wanted to take my six favorite producers and do it up like that. Right towards the end I hooked up with Hi-Tek and Havoc so that’s what ended up making it eight [producers], I originally just had a few. It’s crazy man, obviously I grew up listening to all of them and I love all they music. A lot of other famous cats had stepped to me like “yo I got somethin’ for you” and I was like “no disrespect but I’ll get back with you on the next one.” This was somethin’ I had to do for me. This is an elite group I put together and I just wanted to do it up. The next one is a free-for-all, I’ll let anybody jump on board. I hope no one was offended but this is for the greater good of hip-hop music right now in the messed up state it’s in.
You should executive produce the next Nas album [laughs]! I wish somebody with a vision like you could do that.
That’s the thing, ever since I was a kid I been a fan. I always been like y”o why don’t they do this and why they ain’t do that?” I was like let me do something that I think everybody would appreciate. At least people who into the same type of music as me.
When is the album due? Politics As Usual drops September 30th. I could have dropped earlier but I decided to wait till September, so I could try to sneak another one or two tracks on it.
What label is it coming out on?
It’s on Nature Sounds distributed by EMI but all the music was put together by ST Records that’s my label. I pretty much put the album together. They letting me do it my way the ST Records way. Doing what ever I want, saying what ever I want. Picking my singles and cussing out who ever from the president to police.
Boston has had a lot of great artists. But Boston has never been on the map like it should of. Do you feel like your record or your career will help put Boston on the map were its supposed to be? I think it’s definitely going to help. There’s a lot of great emcees in Boston and there’s a lot of good artists and people that came before me: Ed O.G., Almighty RSO, Krumbsnatcha, Mr. Lif, and Akrobatik. There’s a lot of people that been on the radar but it ends up where they never get the platinum success or the big radio play success. I’m not saying that my album is going to do that but if it does it will definitely help Boston. And I’m from Lawrence which is like 45 minutes outside Boston but everybody in Massachussetts represents with that B cap, it’s one nation.
How do they treat you in that scene in Boston? Is it like “Term is the one who’s making it for us” or what? It’s love and hate just like any dude making it from his own city. Some people don’t really care for me and then other people live for me. And it’s like “Yo you’re the illest we happy we got you, we’re so appreciative”. I just do it for the fans; I never pay attention to the haters because you can’t fight everybody. That’s pretty much how I look at it but I got mad love for the Bean and the B know what it is. They got love for the kid.
Any thing you wanna shout be fore we get outta here?
Go to Myspace.com/therealtermanology Termanology with an “A” hit me up, leave a comment. I’ll come to your hood and rock just holla at my man Dan Green.