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Interview Date: 05th September 2010

Published Date: 18th November 2010

Conducted By: Dark 7 Invader

Notes:
Phone Special thanks to Lex Starwind

Interview

I like to say thanks first and foremost for taking the time to answer these questions, highly appreciated, and will also point out that nothing will be altered, edited or changed when this is published online.

Wu-International: How are you Lex?
Lex Starwind:  I’m good man. I’ve just been working a lot. You have to stay on top of shit to make it, you know?

Wu-International: That's true, not too many LCOB and Wu fans currently know who you are so can you kindly introduce yourself and tell us where you are from, your affiliation etc?
Lex Starwind: Yeah, my name is Lex Starwind. My handle is Weapon-X. I’m originally from New York, Jamaica Queens. I moved to PA when I was like 10, and I now reside near Phoenixville, PA. I’m a member of Foundation and more recently, The Lost Children of Babylon.

Wu-International:  Yes we spoke to Jon Murdock recently, you are both the latest addition to LCOB, and Murdock told us how it happened, did the two of you discuss about it before joining and is your group Fdation still active or disbanded?
Lex Starwind: Foundation is forever baby! We’re always making moves regardless of what else is going on. We kind of just fell into the LCOB thing, but it felt like a good fit so it all worked out in the end. Murdock was locked up when I first met Stretch, but I knew he would be down. I mean, LCOB is composed of like minded member, so I knew that if I clicked with them, he would too. Murdock was released from jail a few weeks later and we all just linked up. Rasul already had the Zeitgeist idea when we first spoke. He called us from Cali and was like “Yo, Y’all gotta link up with Cosmic and Atun. I’ll be out there soon.” It was curtains after that.

Wu-International: How did you both become a member, was it instant, or did you have to get approval from one or all the members or went through a process, initiation etc, tell us how please? Lex Starwind: Well, I met Stretch aka Mad Scientific through his cousin Darq. Darq was rocking a show at the same spot I was one night and he was with Stretch. Darq called me like a week later, and said Stretch wanted to get up with me. Darq gave Stretch my number, a few week later me and Murdock met up with him. A month or so after that Rasul called us from Cali, saying he was trying to link up and get some shit cracking. He has a lot of ideas, and he’s just a cool cat, so we were with it. After he came back to PA and we met the other members everything was good.

Wu-International: We found out from Murdock what he brought to the table that was different, what would you say you bring or makes you stand out from the rest of the LCOB members?
Lex Starwind: I think my style is different from the other member in the group because I think it’s a little more abstract. My rhymes are kind like a thought stream. Your thoughts aren’t always complete sentences, or might not even make sense in a different frame of reference, but at that moment in time, they make sense.

Wu-International: Ok, so how would you then differentiate between you and your partner Jon Murdock?
Lex Starwind: Oh wow. I don’t know. In some ways were are alike, but in some ways we're a lot different. I’m known him for like 15 years. He’s one of my best friends. Musically, we come from the same place, the same school of hip-hop, but we see it through different eyes. He’s lived in or around Phoenixville most of his life I think. I’ve lived in a lot of different towns and shit. Obviously he’s white and I’m black. I’m sure that gave us different views and idea about how to be an emcee growing up. We both started rhyming when we were like 13-14 years old or so but back then, especially in the suburbs it was rare to meet a real emcee. So I’m sure that affected us differently. I met him when I moved to Phoenixville when was 15, but I didn’t know he rhymed until I was 17. We were just smoking a blunt in the park, and I spit some new shit I had back then, and he came out with some hot shit. I was in a group called Quantum Mechanix back then. I tried to put him down with my group, but he and my first producer didn’t get along. We cut one track together, and every time I wanted to get him back in the studio, my producer wasn’t having it. When Quantum fell apart in 1999, Murdock let me hear a CD of some shit he was doing with my man Ricky Fitz. We did like 2 or 3 songs and after that we became Foundation. So all in all, even though we’ll pick a lot of same kind of beats, or touch on the same topics, we’ll always do it differently because we come from different places. I think we have a nice blend though. We feed off of each other lyrically so we’ll always keep pushing each other.

Wu-International:  We will get more into the Fdation soon, but speaking of seeing things differently or doing it differently, LCOB has in the past been seen as the forerunners of spiritual hip-hop, is this something that is right up your alley?
Lex Starwind: Yes and No. I mean, a lot of the topics LCOB touches on, is the same type of shit I was always interest in. Stuff I would read in my spare time, study up on. But before Zeitgeist, I didn’t put that type of stuff in my rhyme. I might drop a bar here or there, but to do a focused album like that was a little different. Not everybody can do that. It takes versatility.

Wu-International: So do you share the same Nuwabian beliefs and teachings expressed by most of the members, if not what are your thoughts on these teachings?
Lex Starwind: Not particularly, but I’m a real open minded person. I’m always influenced by different school of thought. The teachings weren’t something new to me when I joined LCOB, but they definitely schooled me on a few things.

Wu-International: How easy was it for you and Jon to blend in with the group as far as making music goes?
Lex Starwind: At the beginning, I thought it would be a difficult, but in retrospect it was pretty easy especially considering that all of the members have completely different rhyme styles. I worried about how our stuff would blend with theirs at first, but as we cut more and more songs, we began to have a more cohesive sound.

Wu-International: What was the recording of Zeitgeist like for you? Do you have any great stories, funny or rare moments you like to share with the fans please?
Lex Starwind: The thing that made it memorable for me was just the fact that I got to work with a bunch of other great emcees. I’ve been a part of Foundation for over 10 years and we’ve always been self contained. We really haven’t done that many collaborations. I mean, on my solo album I have a song with Reef the Lost Cause and one with Sean Price, but you gotta understand something. Foundation as a group has recorded like 300-400 songs. Not myself individually, but there had got to be at least 400 songs, all produced by us, that either features myself, Jon Murdock, or Ricky Fitz. And that’s a low estimate. So it was a lot different working with The Lost Children.

Wu-International: So what approach did you all use in making this album, who or what determines which beats to use and who features or not feature on it?
Lex Starwind:  Rasul is kind of the mastermind behind a lot of the song ideas. He usually has a basic idea of what he wanted to do, but we all build it up. You could say he would always throw out the first idea. We would just play with it from there. You know, shit like “I like that, but flip the chorus like this” or “I like that beat, but the drums are wack, change that up.” Shit like that. It was collective, but I remember Rasul always having the first idea, and when you toss an idea in the cypher, people subconsciously start to move in the same direction.

Wu-International: So Rasul usually comes up with the idea, what about title, or structure of the songs, and were the songs all recorded together with all members involved or some over the internet?
Lex Starwind:  Most of the songs were recorded with all of us in the studio at the same time. As far as titles go, we usually had a title or concept ready before we started recording. Most of the ideas for song titles came pretty easily.

Wu-International: Thanks, so how are you feeling with the new album Zeitgeist?
Lex Starwind: I love it. I think it has a unique sound to it. Every song has a solid concept, a certain feel to it.

Wu-International: We have asked everybody this questions, so its your turn, what does the title Zeitgeist for an album mean to you?
Lex Starwind:  I think its millennium music. All of the ideas, concepts and sounds are the culmination of everything that has happened so far in this millennium. The album has a lot of substance.

Wu-International:  Are they any songs on the album that stands out for you and why?
Lex Starwind:  I like Shadow Government, Babylon A.D. and 2012 the best. Not sure why. They are the song I find myself listening to the most. And Drug Wars. The beat on that one is hard body.

Wu-International: Why have you called it Outlaw star?
Lex Starwind: The Outlaw Star is the title of an anime. The main character’s name is Gene Starwind and that’s where I got my name from.

Wu-International: Anything else you are working on apart from Outlaw Star that you will like to share with us please?
Lex Starwind: Yeah. I’m featured on both of Jon Murdock’s solo albums, Dark City and Dark City 2. Murdock and I are also involved with another project with a producer named Vanderslice called The Flying Dutchmen. Real progressive hip-hop, not the average stuff you hear on the radio every day. I’ve also begun preliminary work on my second solo album, Lex StarTrek – Deep Space Rhyme. So I’ve been pretty busy lately. I also recently shot a music video with Alter Productions, from France. It’s for a track off of Dark City 3 – Sky Scraper Ships. The track is called The War is On. You can check it out on YouTube. It’s pretty grimy.

Wu-International: Sounds like you are a very busy active MC, The album "Appendices" is next, have you started recording for this project as well?
Lex Starwind: We’ve already started talking about the next album, picking producers and keeping it moving. I don’t think it will be too long before we drop another album. As far as a title, I haven’t heard anything from anyone yet, so who knows.

Wu-International:  Thanks before we round up let's go back to your name again, you were initially known as Weapon X before Lex Starwind, name change or adaptation of a new persona?
Lex Starwind: I never really dropped the Weapon X name. Most people think it was Wolverine’s name, but originally the reference was to the project that created Wolverine. The Weapon X project was meant to create a super soldier. Mind you I picked out that name when I was 13, plus I was and still am a big Canibus fan, so I guess what I wanted to do was to set myself up to be the prototype for the next generation of super emcee. Yeah, I know it sound a little corny and maybe a little naive, but in my heart that’s what I want to be. I want to be so ill that no one can deny my skill. When I released my first album in 2008, it was actually called Weapon X presents - The Outlaw Star. When decided put it out again, we redid the artwork and decided to put the LCOB name and logo on it. I think it’s better for promotional reasons. I originally came up with the name Lex Starwind when my first group Quantum Mechanix fell apart in 1999. I just felt I needed a change. Besides Starwind sound futuristic to me. I always want to be on some cutting edge shit, next generation you know.

Wu-International: Cool, thanks, Anything else you like to share with the fans before we end this interview?
Lex Starwind: Not too much. Just thanks for the love and support. And check out the website www.fdation.com . Other than that, be on the lookout for The Lost Children, The Flying Dutchmen, and Deep Space Rhyme.

Wu-International: Thanks for your time, any shout outs?
Lex Starwind: I’d like to give a shout out to Alter Productions, good looking on the video and the art work. Shout out to Rasul Allah, Cosmic Crusader, Atun Sen Geb and Rich Raw for giving me a chance to shine. Shout out to Sean Price and Reef the Lost Cause for blessing my solo album. And a big shout out to my uncle Benny Black aka Nasty Nuckulls for giving me that drive in the beginning and for being my producer when Quantum fell apart. There was almost a year between Quantum and Foundation and he held me down during that time. Hell, and he did half of the first Foundation album, and that was a pivotal time in my music career. Without him I probably would have never started rhyming. And Thanks to Wu-international for being interested enough to want to interview me. Peace.
 

Catch up with The Lost Children of Babylon / Fdation
http://lcobproductions.com/
www.fdation.com
www.myspace.com/thelostchildrenofbabylon 

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#3 [Atun Seb Geb] - Right Rhyming Interview   [3rd Nov 2010]
#4 [Jon Murdock] - The Foundation Part 1 Interview [11th Nov 2010] 
#5 [Lex Starwind] - The Foundation Part 2 [18th Nov 2010]
#6 [Ancient Kemet] - The Alchemist Interview [25th Nov 2010]
#7 [White Lotus] - Chief Of The Lotus Clan [30th Nov 2010]
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