thaFormula.com - You seem to be constantly in the studio at work. How often are you in the studio and is this what's required from you?

Bishop Lamont - It's not what's required or what a label expects of you. If this is your life and this is what you worked your whole life to achieve and have the blessing to do, then you should have your ass in the office everyday. Bills don't get paid if you ain't in the office everyday. You can get fired, laid off or whatever be the case if you want to think of it in that sense because at the end of the day it's still Burger King. It's a job. I mop the floors, I flip the fries or the burgers, I work the drive thru and I go home. But I put in overtime so I could be employee of the month and really love my job and really give my job the most I can. So my day is I get up and go to the gym, go straight to the studio and I'm there until the next morning. Sometimes I stay through the next day and just sleep on the couch or something. But you have to have a passion about your work and you have to give it your all. Most people can tell that who really know good music and real people. Real artists can tell bullshit from the genuine article. Look, I got Rage in here right now with a rag on her head looking sleepier then a muthafucka but she came down to work. That's big. I remember when I first heard "Afro Puffs" and heard her on the fucking "Chronic" album. Like dreams like that is a blessing to me. She got some new shit coming too. But those are the blessings and those are benefits that you reap from really persevering and going after it and sacrificing everything. You have to sacrifice almost your last breath for this because there is some people that wanna be doing that and so many more people that don't want you doing this. Not many niggaz get to make it to the NBA. They could be better than Jordan, they could be better then Magic but you will never know.

thaFormula.com - With the feedback you have gotten from the "Caltroit" project and the mix tape, are you planning more projects now that maybe you weren't planning before?

Bishop Lamont - We are doing a spoof of the "Team America" movie. We spoofin' on songs from that movie and some other shit, but really the topics of that is all political. It's about the war and it's about the government. It's like it's different chambers. Then me and Glasses (Malone) and Mykestro are doing "Yellow, Hot & Steamy." Mykestro is Yellow, Glasses is hot, and I'm steamy. We pissin' on the industry. I got the "Pope Mobile" which will probably be dropping right before the album comes out on top of next year and "Pope Mobile" just deals with religion and all the bullshit and the good things that are mixed into that and how people use that as a way of restricting people and controlling the masses. It's just all kinds of shit and this just accelerated the fact that people are really looking for genuine real Hip-Hop again and wanting to hear fresh shit and they are getting excited about the music again. Now that was the main goal because I'm not excited so much as a fan but as a person that's in the business, let me try to stimulate and create those ripples in the pond so to speak to make more muthafuckas move and more good shit is gonna come and more people are gonna be checking for more hot shit to keep coming.

thaFormula.com - So what are you currently working on for 2007?

Bishop Lamont - We're just getting ready for "The Reformation" and "Detox" next year. You know I be having my agents in the chat rooms and shit and I heard some funny shit recently. They had a whole chat room on me about "Bishop has been signed for 2 years, he ain't coming out, it's a wrap." So I say to all you beautiful lovers of my dick, the album is coming next year so be happy and be ready for that. You are gonna keep hearing fresher and fresher shit, get ready for this "Caltroit" explosion. Be ready for a lot of fly shit and a lot of surprises. Be ready to either pack your shit up and get out, or step your game up and come with some real music and come with some reality in your rhymes. You really got to be what you say you are now. We can't have no more of this smoke and mirrors. The curtain has been pulled back on the wizard and now it's all the real muthafuckas. That's it, just moving the movement.

thaFormula.com - With "The Reformation" how much has changed since we talked and how far along are you right now. I mean is this something that you want to spend a long time on?

Bishop Lamont - I wanted to spend a long time on it and I mean when you are putting something together like this, your first album is almost the sum of your entire life. You've been living your whole life to make this first album and you coming out with Dr. Dre on Aftermath in between 50 Cent and Eminem. You've got to come with some outrageous shit. Not only just because you're coming out with the Dream Team but just for yourself. So I'm not a nigga that is gonna go and cut 40 songs and be like "yeah I got my album." The way we work over here, nigga you will cut 300 songs or 400 songs, you don't stop. Because just that moment where you thought it was enough, you get something that's so amazing that it knocked 2 or 3 other records off the album down for the count. You're working fast and steady. Sometimes you have to be real meticulous with it, you got to be real precise like a surgeon, then other times you are just groovin' and living in the moment and you are telling the truth. A lot of niggaz have to make they music up, a lot of niggaz have to make records up. They have to think hard, I'm not thinking hard. I don't have to make no shit up. Philip is Bishop, Bishop is Philip and I have lived the life and I'm living the life. I'm talking about things that I'm going through or I'm about to go through. It's different when you're putting a whole album together.

thaFormula.com - What percentage of "The Reformation" is done as of now?

Bishop Lamont - Like 80 percent. We are going out to Hawaii soon to get with Dre and finish the album while I'm out there. I got a few little things uh, finally me and Chad of the Neptunes got in the studio and started working on some shit so that's gonna be crazy. Finally getting Just Blaze and Primo (DJ Premier) out of the way. That was the last thing really on my list besides all the Dre records. The goal was just to make sure Dre was in place and he was rhyming on the album and just crazy different shit like that and a few surprise features I can't even say. It ain't even on no rap shit, it's on another level. When you are trying to get juggernauts like that on your album, it takes time.

thaFormula.com - So is there one particular producer on "The Reformation" that maybe people wouldn't have expected you to get?

Bishop Lamont - Lord Finesse. Niggaz out there be running to so and so getting beats trying to ride dick on Polow. Polow is a dope ass producer but Polow knows about Lord Finesse, Polow knows about Primo. Stop just riding new niggaz dicks. Support them 2 because Polow is a real ass nigga, but know your history. Go get you a Primo, go get you a Salaam Remi, go get you a Lord Finesse, a Pete Rock then you really doing some Hip-Hop shit. I got (DJ) Khalil on there, Diverse is on there, Focus, and Bink from Virginia. It's just a lot of dope cats, but I want to keep the whole line up a surprise. I wanna keep it exciting and innovative and make it something that will really wanna make people go to the store and get it. Shit even if you bootleg it, I really don't give a fuck. As long as you love it and you enjoy it and it moves the movement, that's what it's about at the end of the day.

thaFormula.com - I'm glad to hear that Hittman is back in the mix?

Bishop Lamont - Hell yeah, Hittman is back in the mix. We've been talking like crazy and he was supposed to have his ass here for the "Caltroit" shit, but he has been busy working on other shit, so hopefully he will still get to be on this, but Mel Man is back, Rage is back, Warren G is in the building. Everybody is back so it's gonna be really nice and what it's supposed to be. The goal is to try and teach people. They don't know nothing. They run and get whoever has a hot hit out right now then they want to go and get the same beat. Scott Storch has been around since the Roots first album. Not "Do You Want More", but "Organix." Niggaz don't even know Roots probably had a first album before "Do You Want More." I got Scott on my album but Scott just didn't do no "Lean Back (Further)," it was some real ill shit. Me and Talib (Kweli) are working on a record. It's a lot of fly shit and surprises. Black Milk is on the album. It's a lot of dope shit and new people. My issue was getting the original architects and then new architects that cats have been sleeping on or ain't paying attention to thoroughly. A Dilla beat may even pop up, but who knows I can't really say.

thaFormula.com - In a recent Black Thought Interview I did, he felt that Hip-Hop as we knew it was over which was pretty tough to hear especially when hearing who it is coming from?

Bishop Lamont - But that's inspiration because I ain't gonna let him down and all the new cats ain't gonna let him down and with him we can lift it to a whole new level but it is over as far as we knew it because they don't understand what The Roots mean, they don't understand a real show. You know these niggaz have 5 million hype men on stage with some CDJ's or a DAT and think they are really doing a show. You can't even hear most of their words sounding like trash. But their videos look nice. They shit come with a built in dance. That's cool but that's not the only level of Hip-Hop or the only angle we got so it takes us to supercede that shit. There is room for everybody to play in the sandbox, but some niggaz got to get bullied out.

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