Gifted Da Flamethrowa Interview: SXSW 2010

Houston rapper Gifted Da Flamethrowa has experienced a lot in his life including several brushes with death, being shot in the face and having to relocate from his home in New Orleans. All of it has had a profound impact on who he is as an artist and how he raises his six children. Honesty and positivity are a few of the many traits he's learned since first taking the stage at a very young age, and he's sure to have all that and more tucked under his arm when he travels to Austin for SXSW.

Where did the name Gifted Da Flamethrowa come from?

My name used to be Hennessy. But, I got tired of that name. I've been rapping for over 20 years. It's kind of like Jay-Z and GZA, I had Hennessy and Gifted was like an alias. I decided to drop off the Hennessy, but as I started doing some internet research I found that they had like a hundred Gifteds. So, I added the Flamethrowa to separate myself from the pack. And, I chose Flamethrowa because I spit hot, I go off.

Describe your sound in your own words.

I get my aggressiveness from LL Cool J, I get my honesty from Pac, I get my punchlines from like Jay-Z or Jadakiss, and I get my story telling capabilities from Biggie. You can't pigeon hole me into a box. I just like to make good music, man. One song might be an aggressive, hard hitting party song and another song might be one that's really knocking at your heart. It all just depends on how I'm feeling at that moment when I pick up that ink pen.

Who are your musical influences?

I would definitely have to say LL is a major influence. And, people laugh at me, and I don't care if you laugh, but Will Smith is one of my biggest influences. That dude's lyrical capabilities were sick when you really listen to the way he put together rhymes. So, LL, Pac, Nas... I love hip hop, man. I could go to the East coast with your Wu Tangs, and your Mos Defs and your Talib Kwelis, and all the way to opera or country with Alan Jackson and Garth Brooks. I just love music, anything I hear that touches my heart.

What would be your biggest vice?

My biggest vice would be the dishonesty in music, especially dealing with the hip hop genre. I feel like we've taken a beautiful thing like hip hop and we've perverted it so much to where it's dark. Hip hop now, the message and the influence is negative. And, the things that we glorify in 80 percent of our rhymes are the very things that are destroying our neighborhoods and our kids. I don't want to name names. A lot of artists glorify it, but they don't tell the other side of the story like how many years in jail you could get, or worse, how many lives are lost. So that's my vice, just the dishonesty that we're presenting to the public.

What would be in your festival survival kit?

Definitely bottled water, and any kind of chewy candy like gummy worms or fruit snacks. That's it, man. Give me some bottled water and fruit snacks, and I'm good to go.

Who was your first celebrity crush?

My first celebrity crush is in between Vanity, when I first got introduced to Vanity, you know from "The Last Dragon" movie by Berry Gordy. It's either Vanity, the girl Kelly who was a dancer from "Breakin'", or Apollonia from "Purple Rain"... Probably Apollonia.

What would be your biggest musical guilty pleasure?

My guilty pleasure I guess would be being gone, you know traveling. I have six kids. I've been with my wife, on the 25th of march, will be 14 years. So, it's good being able to see places like England, California and New York, but it's bad being away from my babies. I try to be home as much as possible because it makes no sense for me to be loved around the world by strangers but hated by my own family. So, that's my guilty pleasure. It's good to see different places, but it's rough not seeing my babies or not seeing my wife.

What's the craziest thing you've seen or experienced while on tour?

I remember one night we had a show at this club and this girl was trying to get with everybody, and to make a long story short, none of my crew wanted to get with her. The next morning as we were leaving our hotel room, we caught her sneaking out of another room with a wad of money and all the dude's clothes.

What's your opinion about where hip hop has gone to these days?

I don't want to be disrespectful, but I have to say that this new hip hop is untalented. Back in the day, cats had to really rap. You know, we had Nas, Naughty by Nature, MC Lyte. I miss the purity in hip hop. I miss the Rakims. Right now, hip hop is not really saying anything. I love it because it's powerful and passionate, but I'd really like to see it get more down to earth from where it's at. And, I think it's going that way.

I read that you were shot in the face, how old were you when that happened?

I was fifteen, dude. I set foot in the street when I was twelve years old. That's when I first stepped into a night club with a bunch of grown men and grown women at twelve years old. So, that's how I was living my life. To make a long story short, we got in a deal with some dudes and guns came out and they were hitting at me and my brother. I was able to make it behind a truck. My brother didn't make it, so he was just standing in front of the truck, and you could actually hear the bullets hitting the truck, ting, ting, ting. So, when I heard him screaming and hollering, I jumped up amidst all the gun fire and just ran and grabbed him and when I did, bam, it hit me in my face. My life flashed before my eyes. I know a lot of people make getting shot seem like it's the thing to do. I was playing me. There wasn't anything gangster about that burning sensation.

How did that situation change your life? Did it give you a different perspective on life?

Absolutely. I've got to be honest with you though, it didn't slow me all the way down. I was still in the streets. But, it definitely slowed me a little. When my first daughter was born, I thought about her growing up without a daddy, because my dad wasn't around. It definitely changed my perspective and slowed me down a lot.

William Mills is a contributor from Seed.com. Learn how you can contribute here.