Che Smith, also known as Rhymefest, is a Chicago native running for Alderman in the 20th Ward. Before his show at the Illini Union on Feb. 17 with Mac Miller, the Grammy award-winning musician sat down with The Daily Illini to answer a few questions regarding his campaign.
The Daily Illini: Do you feel like rapping influenced you to become a politician, or did you always have goals to make a change in your neighborhood?
Rhymefest: I don’t even think about it as politics. You know what’s funny? When I decided to run for alderman, I never thought it was politics. I just always thought it was something good for my neighborhood. Like I’m going to do something good for the ‘hood (Laughs)! You know I send out these newsletters about what’s going on with the campaign, and rappers are just so far from politics. Like even Kanye (West) hit me up the other day and was like ‘Man you’re running for mayor now, you’re doing good! (Laughs) I was like ‘No, G’. But yeah, we’re all so far removed from politics. My neighborhood has one of the highest rates for foreclosed homes. You can walk down my street and see a whole block with two people who live on it but 20 empty homes. You can see 28,000 vacant city lots in one neighborhood. We have a neighborhood where you have to travel two miles to get to the nearest grocery store. It’s like an urban ghost town, in just a neighborhood. It’s got 27 percent unemployment, fourth most violent ward for crime in the city. Instead of politics, I was just like ‘there’s some regret’ and like how can I give love back to the community to show me love. I always looked at it like a love mission and not as a politic mission.
DI: So what are your goals for the 20th ward?
Rhymefest: My goal for the 20th ward is to market it like a rap album. Market it, market it, market it. The 20th ward needs a product that we can sell. If you want herbs and spices you go to Chinatown, if you want to eat after the club you go to Greektown. When do you come to brown town for? We need something like Project Deep Clean. We clean all of the streets because I’m in charge of sanitation. I’m going to clean the whole ward up so when people walk outside people will notice and feel different. I’m going to clean the whole area up, sign covenants and oaths between the businesses and community so that the businesses know that they have a responsibility to the community and the community is responsible for the businesses that are there, and so that we can eliminate the loitering; eliminate the drug dealing. We need to take responsibility for our neighborhood and feel like we have a stake in it. So I want to do Project Deep Clean, I want to do a covenant between businesses and community and I want to establish entrepreneurial programs for people. Because, you know, a lot of people in my neighborhood are coming back home from prison for felonies, so how are they going to get a job when people with college degrees can’t even get jobs? So I want to establish programs where they can create their business instead of getting back out and selling more drugs and going back to jail. Those are my first three priorities.
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DI: How do you feel social networking has impacted your campaign?
Rhymefest: In the last day-and-a-half I’ve raised $2,000 in small donations from social networking. There’s a program called Act Blue, which is a Democratic site that people use to receive donations online. We were rated number four out of the top five on Act Blue for hits and small donors. We were right under national Democratic organizations. What it showed me is that there is a power in the hip-hop political base that hasn’t been tapped into, but we are just scratching the surface of. (President Barack) Obama showed it existed, and we’re sort of tapping it, to see how much candy the piñata can drop. One of my last shows was promoted strictly online, and we got 500 people to raise $5,000 in only four days from only Twitter and Facebook! It’s just incredible to say the least.
DI: How does it feel to balance out a career in politics and a career in hip-hop?
Rhymefest: Man, a better question would be ‘how does it feel to balance my political career and my personal life?’ I’ve been trying to write songs and it just doesn’t come out. I got the freshest beats, Kanye West sent me some tracks, my cousin Rob Bates, who goes here, is going to give me some tracks. But like, music is not coming out of me now, and at first thought I was like, ‘Am I whack? Am I too old?’ but I think what’s happening is that I’m growing and I’m maturing and it’s uncomfortable, but I have to find a new voice. I think my next album will be the new voice.
DI: Will you continue rapping even if you win alderman?
Rhymefest: Whatever happens, that’s a part of who I am. Like I said earlier, I’m finding a new voice, but that voice has got to be ill because, like, I was messing up before, because I could help Lil’ Jon write a song, or when I (writing) with Queen Latifah, or when I (writing) with Trina, or when I write with Kanye. I could write all these different kinds of songs, but when people hear Rhymefest they don’t want to hear all of these different kinds of songs, they want to hear one thing. Rhymefest brings a certain kind of image to your mind, and yeah I want to hear the sex song, like the song I wrote with Lil’ Jon, but I couldn’t put that on my album. It might be good if Lil’ Jon or Ludacris did it, but it might not be good if I did it, so I have to focus on my persona, my brand and not be all over the place. Like on my last album, Blue Collar, I had a song called ‘Stick.’ It was popular in the clubs but my true fans weren’t having it. I have to make music for my audience and the spirit of who I truly am, and not just for everybody. I guess it has to do with being true to yourself and not just an audience. I think I’m learning that. So yeah, I will continue rapping and I’m learning to stay true to my spirit.
