ThaFormula.com - What's been going on with you man?

Ill Bill - I just got back from the studio and did a joint with Styles P. Once I get back, I'm gonna jump in the studio with M.O.P. and do something for their new record. I want to get M.O.P. on the La Coka Nostra album also so that's what's up.

ThaFormula.com - The last time we spoke was when you guys had just dropped the Non-Phixion "Green Album" so first lets get into the Non-Phixion thing man. Looking back at the breakup now, do you still think that was the best thing to do as far as the group was concerned and how did the "Green Album" do for you guys?

Ill Bill - Yeah it really ran its course and its something that we all agreed on. The "Green Album" with the DVD did dope. We sold a lot of them and it was kind of like a good way to wrap it up thinking about it if we weren't gonna make an album. Just the chemistry wasn't there to do what we did with "The Future is Now." So to me we left on a high note with the "Green Album" because that explained everything about Non-Phixion. That was the history of Non-Phixion, you got to see a lot of live footage going back to when we first started and it was like a two and a half hour DVD that was like a Behind the Music on Non-Phixion up to that point. We might actually put out another one because there is some stuff that we left off of the first one. I don't know about a DVD, but definitely a "Green Album Vol. 2." We could probably do a Vol. 2 and a Vol. 3. There is a lot of stuff that never came out on CD. Like besides some freestyles and demos, there is just a lot of records. We put out probably like 14 singles before we even dropped the album and 2 or 3 songs per single, so we dropped an albums worth of material before we even put out "The Future is Now".

ThaFormula.com - You know the first Non-Phixion album was a very successful album, I would think that you guys would be itching to go back in the studio and work on the next album after the success of the first...

Ill Bill - Success can also create problems and it's not something that's unique to our situation if you just look at our musical history. If The Police and The Beatles can break up, why are you surprised that Non-Phixion broke up?

ThaFormula.com - It just seemed like you guys were like brothers so it was a little surprising to me?

Ill Bill - And you know what, sometimes that's why shit goes down the way it does because when someone fucks up, its even deeper.

ThaFormula.com - So would you say that Non-Phixion will never happen again?

Ill Bill - You know I say never say never, but really it's not anything that any of us are interested in doing and I talk to Sabac almost everyday. I speak to Eclipse several times a day.

ThaFormula.com - Some people say why not do another album without Goretex or with a new member…

Ill Bill - First of all it would be disrespectful to the fans, because from a point of view of strictly music on its own, what everybody did including Goretex was classic to me. People could call it whatever they want, but in my eyes "The Future is Now" is a classic album. The way the group was at the point that we broke up, we wasn't making a classic album. It just wasn't gonna happen. My attitude is and I relate to Busta Rhymes when he first dropped his first solo album and he was like "if I cant be part of the best, I'ma have to be the best on my own" and I damn well know that I can stand on my own two and I can be responsible for myself, but when it comes to the music side of things, I have never taken any shorts with that. Everybody makes mistakes and I have made mistakes and learned from them, but at the end of the day, I'm not gonna make excuses for other people and really sit on a sinking ship when I know that I can accomplish way more on my own. At the same time it isn't about me wanting to have a solo career and being on the solo tip because you see I can't escape being in a group. It's like I'm already in a new group. I like being in a group. The thing is I have come to the realization and it comes with maturity, that I'm not gonna put up with no bullshit. Life is too short and really when you're in a group with somebody, it goes beyond just making music with them. With more success it becomes more intertwined with your personal life and someone else's personal decisions whether positive or negative are gonna affect you no matter how positive you are in yourself. Really what all of us found out in dealing with Goretex is just he's living his life negative. That negative shit, I just cant be around that no more. I put up with it, I dealt with it for a long time, but its like I'm not gonna have dead weight dragging me down. Everybody has to be moving, there has to be synergy for shit to work. All the wheels have to be turning. For a machine to work all the gears have to be moving and if you have 4 gears and one out of the four ain't moving after 5 years, its a wrap. 'Cause this wasn't an overnight decision. Shit was fucking up and the situation got worse and worse year after year. This is going back really truthfully, this shit was poppin' during the time we were recording "The Future is Now." There were situations where muthafuckas just couldn't carry their weight and when I say muthafuckas, I'm talking about one person and you know who I'm talking about.

ThaFormula.com - When we last spoke it seemed like you were really trying to push the whole Uncle Howie label. You dropped the sampler and all that, but then it just seemed like you just stopped pushing it after a while, what happened with that?

Ill Bill - What happened was that my solo record came out on Psychological, so I really picked up the Psychological banner at that point and was waving that flag. At that time we put out the "Green Album" and it really wasn't meant to be a full on release. At the same time I was working on the Q-Unique record and we put that out and I really loved that album and me and Q really worked hard on putting that album together and it did cool. It definitely opened a lot of doors for Q. It allowed him to create his own lane. A lot of people really didn't wanna hear him as a solo artist. Whenever he tried to get it poppin' as a solo artist people were constantly asking him when are the Arsonists were getting back together. So this album allowed him to brand himself and stamp his name on the game. That to me is a huge success for Uncle Howie and shout out to Eclipse because that's who I work with day to day. Really, I did kind of fall back in trying to put out a million artists and even though I did aspire to do that at different points, if you really look at Uncle Howie its really been a means of putting my own music out. Whether it's Non-Phixion or my mix tapes. I put out "Ill Bill is the Future Vol. 1" and I just dropped "Ill Bill is the Future Vol. 2" actually on Uncle Howie. Anything I do is gonna have the Uncle Howie logo on it. I'm just not running around trying to sign 100 acts and you know to me its quality over quantity. That's always what I have done. I have always been laying down my foundation so it's solid. I have always been paving my own road and creating my own lane and I'm continuing that with La Coka Nostra. You will always see that Uncle Howie logo with everything that I do. So when the La Coka Nostra record comes out, you might see Lethal's logo on it, you might see a bunch of different logos, but you will see that Uncle Howie logo the same way as you will see it on the next solo record that I put out, where its going through Warner Brothers, but as far as marketing I'm not relying on Warner Brothers. That's coming from me and eclipse and right there that's Uncle Howie. Truth of the matter is, as little as we put out, we have always made a mark with what we have done like when we put out Immortal Techniques first 2 singles when nobody was trying to hear Immortal Technique, we put out his records.

ThaFormula.com - Speaking of that, what made you decide to put that out at a time when no one was trying to take a chance on Immortal?

Ill Bill - Yeah, he basically went to every vinyl distributor in the business and basically got turned down and when I found out about that, I bugged out. To me that shit was ridiculous. The reason why I put Tech's record out was because he's dope and I didn't agree with the fact that people wouldn't put it out. It didn't make sense to me. To me its like his shit is too extreme for some people and when I say some people I'm talking about the people that he presented his shit to. They just couldn't handle it. To me that's my lane right there so that's why it was like "hell yeah this shit is dope." That's really what I have always done and that's why it doesn't matter how many records I put out. Uncle Howie is always looked at as official. I probably sell more Uncle Howie t-shirts and merchandise then I do CD's and that's because people relate to where I'm coming from 'cause everybody has an Uncle Howie. It could be a cousin or it could be a different name. I had a meeting with the president of Loud a few years ago right before Loud closed the first time and he bugged out cause he's got an Uncle Howie that's on drugs so its like everybody has got an Uncle Howie and a lot of people relate to the idea of taking a negative and turning it into something positive. I know a lot of people might hear our music and focus on the dark side of what were doing and where were coming from but really its really us trying to fight our way through the darkness to get to the light.

ThaFormula.com - So when you dropped your first solo album, what were your expectations and did you think that you might also get caught up in a Q-Unique type of situation where people wanna hear Non-Phixion and not really accept a solo album?

Ill Bill - Nah I didn't really face that at the time because you know the Non-Phixion record "The Future is Now" had only came out like 2 years prior to that. The Future is now was still kind of new and then we dropped the "Green DVD" plus a CD with like 30 unreleased tracks. So when my solo album came out, people were shocked that all 3 MC's of Non-Phixion dropped solo records all within a 6-month period. Mine came in May, Sabac's in June, and Goretex in October. So people were surprised about that and really looking back at it, if we wouldn't have done those solo records, maybe we would have done another Non-Phixion record, you never know.

ThaFormula.com - So what kind of doors did your solo album open up for you?

Ill Bill - It had people looking at me as a solo artist for the first time. It wasn't something I was looking for but it definitely shaped into what's going on for me right now and it's a good thing because I was still trying to do the Non-Phixion thing when that record dropped. The album did dope though. The distribution situation could have been better, but the record itself with that in mind, it did pretty good.

ThaFormula.com - Now earlier you mentioned to me that sometimes you sell more of your merchandise then actual CD's. It seems like that has happened with a lot of people now especially with the downloading situation. Was there a certain point in your career when you made an adjustment for that?

Ill Bill - Yeah, I definitely have been focusing more on it in the past few years. I have always been into merchandise and I always watched Cypress Hill and House of Pain and how they popped it off back in the early 90's. They came with really dope graphics and it always reminded me of the heavy metal rock bands that were doing it and that's something that I have always wanted to focus on. But we didn't have the fan base lets say 10 years ago to fully capitalize on it, where as now we do. Especially the La Coka Nostra merchandise is off the hook. It's crazy.

ThaFormula.com - I'm really impressed with what you guys have done with the La Coka Nostra stuff without an album or single out. It's almost similar to the Non-Phixion stuff?

Ill Bill - What's real crazy about it is that a lot of it is also timing in the way that Myspace popped off. Myspace is a huge part of how La Coka Nostra has been popping off and that was a major force in the equation and its just crazy how many t-shirts and hoodies we are selling strictly off of Myspace traffic. We haven't put out any releases advertising it like that. I put a little link in my new mix tape that I dropped a month ago, but for the most part I would say the traffic is coming from the Myspace page. That's the only place you can really go to link to our store. We are at the point where we are doing in the double digits every month and that's crazy with no record out. I would like to see who is fucking with us right now.

ThaFormula.com - It's a really a big thing for certain people to see a member of Non-Phixion in a group with members of House of Pain and Limp Bizkit…

Ill Bill - Yeah its crazy and what's crazy about it is that it wasn't something that we preconceived. It just happened and that's usually how good shit pops off. I've only heard about shit like that happening. I have never been involved in anything like this until now.

ThaFormula.com - So what are you guys actually gonna do with the La Coka Nostra album?

Ill Bill - We got mad shit right now and we are not even done. We are about to go in the studio with Alchemist, Evidence has got some brand new shit for us, Fred Wreck has some heat for us. Snoop is about to jump on a track, Bun B is about to jump on a track. Lethal did like 90 percent of the records. Basically from like 30 joints that we have, he's probably done like 25 of them. Muggs did 2, I did 1, Cynic did 1, Jacken did 1 and Q did 1. So probably like 24 out of 30 Lethal did. My brothers gonna do some shit, we just did a beat for him. So we are just recording right now and at the same time we are talking to a bunch of different labels figuring out where we are putting it out through. We got label interest and distribution interest cause we don't really wanna sign to a label. We want to do it the right way. We don't wanna make a dollar an album. We don't have to at this point. So you know what it is, we are just figuring out where we gonna put it out through and that's really the delay. Immortal is jumping on a track too so we need a little more time to finish. Realistically its probably gonna come out like January or February 2008. We wanted to drop it this year but its like we gotta finish it. We got like 2 albums worth of shit. We were gonna do a mix tape and rap on a bunch of old Cypress and House of Pain tracks but it was like people want the album. That's the first thing we gotta drop. After we drop the album, we could drop 100 mix tapes. Its like really fuck the mix tape shit. For La Coka Nostra the first thing we got to put out is the album, but we are gonna leak a bunch of songs over the next few months. We are gonna start leaking shit.

ThaFormula.com - It's crazy how things are crumbling for the majors and rising for the Indies right now…

Ill Bill - Yeah, it's crazy. Look at the times. Look how Psycho Realm is rising. The whole Sick Symphonies, the whole shit is like now people are like oh shit! People like us know that they haven't went anywhere, but there is a whole section of people that either never heard of them before or are like where the fuck have those guys been in the last ten years and now they are about to assault everybody this next 2 years.

ThaFormula.com - It sounds like the next couple of years we are gonna see a lot of good music coming out?

Ill Bill - This next like 2 years between us, between Q-Unique, Tech and you know Q just hooked up with Korn so Q-Unique is putting out his next record with them dudes.

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