I love interviews with rappers who are a little, shall we say, eccentric. You know, the types who don't go in for that PR-influenced self-censorship. One such gentleman is DMX (not his real name).

I mentioned recently that X - as he's known by people who can't be bothered with the three letter version - is planning an intriguing-sounding project involving gospel music. XXL last week put up an interview with him which suggests media training doesn't feature that heavily in X's life. If it did, he probably wouldn't have claimed never to have heard of Barack Obama, before proceeding to take the piss out of his name. Even in the occasionally insular world of hip-hop, having zero knowledge of Brack Obama is pretty breathtaking.

Check out some of the highlights from the interview over the page. It is rather amusing and features a rant against the police taking all his guns "for nothing".

What were you doing in between--from the last album to this one, that whole time? What have you been up to?
Life. I been up to that. It's been crazy. Fuckin' police keep on fuckin' raiding my house and shit for nothing. They took all my fuckin' guns. All they did is take is take my guns. All they fuckin' do is fuck my house up and take my guns. That's all they did. Straight robbed me--that's what they did.

On Barack Obama:
Wow, Barack! The nigga's name is Barack. Barack? Nigga named Barack Obama. What the fuck, man?! Is he serious? That ain't his fuckin' name. Ima tell this nigga when I see him, "Stop that bullshit. Stop that bullshit" [laughs] "That ain't your fuckin' name." Your momma ain't name you no damn Barack.

What was the last time you got excited about a new rapper? When was the last time that you really liked somebody that was coming out?
I don't recall being excited about a new rapper ever.

Is it that bad?
No it's not that bad. I just don't, I'm real picky about what I fuck with.

Are you happy right now?
I don't wanna be happy.

Why not?
'Cause when you happy you get locked in sleep. You get sleepy happy. I always wanna be on point. I always wanna be aware.

Read the full interview at XXLmag.com

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