Chicago’s Capital D has come a long way both spiritually and in the music business. His previous work with the hip-hop group All Natural gained critical acclaim due to the powerful song, “Writer’s Block”. A true renaissance man, Capital D is an emcee, an author, owner of his own record label, and a student in law school. Above all, he is a Muslim who tries to spread his positive energy in everything he does. Capital D & The Molemen teamed up to make a brand new album titled “Writer’s Block (The Movie)”. Every single song on the album is a story featuring realistic characters from Chicago’s ghettos. Armed with a strong sense of spirituality and a microphone, Capital D enlightens as well as entertains.

T.JONES: “How are you?”
CAPITAL D: “Alright.”

T. JONES: “How did you get your name?”
CAPITAL D: “It’s just a name I named myself. My first name is David so it comes from that.”

T. JONES: “Your new album ‘Writer’s Block (The Movie)’ is an album filled with characters. Every song is a story. Are these real characters? Which are real and what inspired you to do an album like this?”
CAPITAL D: “They are not real characters for the most part. Some of them may be composites of different people that I know. For the most part, they are not real. I don’t know if it was just one thing that inspired me to write the album. I just like to write. I’ve been into writing and using my imagination.”

T.JONES: “Why did you choose the Molemen as your only production team for this album?”
CAPITAL D: “The Molemen have a sound that unifies the whole album. I lent couple of beats in there. They have different sounding beats but at the same time, they have a unique sound that I think is very distinct, very vivid. The beats lend themselves to the stories.”

T.JONES: “You said that the album ‘Writer’s Block (The Movie)’ came out of the blue. If you weren’t planning on making this album, how did it come to be?”
CAPITAL D: “After the ‘Writer’s Block’ song on the All Natural album, I always had the idea to write a ‘Writer’s Block’ book. I never had the idea to do an entire album. The Molemen just hit me with some beats and they really made me want to write stories.  That album truly came out of nowhere. Most of ‘Writer’s Block (The Movie)’ got written in about 2-3 weeks. I hadn’t listened to the stuff in a while. In my first semester of law school, I didn’t listen to music at all. I just tried to make sure that I focused on school. So, when The Molemen hit me with the beats, I just opened up. They were really vivid beats.”

T.JONES: “Do you have a favorite track on ‘Writer’s Block (The Movie)’ LP?”
CAPITAL D: “I’d have to say ‘Mrs. Manley’. I like that one a lot. It came from a realistic experience. Tony’s grandmother (Tony from All Natural) passed away. She died of cancer. I have other friends and family members who died of cancer. ”

T.JONES: “Will there be an actual movie?”
CAPITAL D: “No.”

T. JONES: “Will you make a video for one of the songs?”
CAPITAL D: “No, we’re not.”

T. JONES: “Who are some of your major influences in music?”
CAPITAL D: “Hip-hop wise, I really don’t listen to much hip-hop to tell you the truth. At the present time, I only listen to Mos Def, The Roots. I just heard the Blackalicious album for the first time. That album is tight. I slept on that for a while. My old school influences are Krs-One and Rakim. I really listen to more stuff outside of hip-hop right now. Personally, I listen to Smashing Pumpkins. I listen to a lot of jazz… the older stuff like Charlie Parker, John Coltrane.”

T. JONES: “What are some of your all time favorite albums?”
CAPITAL D: “’It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back’ (Public Enemy).”

T. JONES: “What are some brand new songs or artists that you are feeling right now?”
CAPITAL D: “I really haven’t bought anything in a minute. The most recent thing that I thought was slamming was the Jill Scott album. The whole album was slamming.”

T. JONES: “Favorite books?”
CAPITAL D: “’Things Fall Apart’ is good but my favorite is ‘Two-Thousand Seasons’ is a book by Nigerian author, Ayi Kwei Armah. He’s from Ghana. It’s really dense. It’s like reading 200 pages of poetry. It’s like that through the entire book.”

T. JONES: “Favorite movies?”
CAPITAL D: “The Godfather.”

T.JONES: “Will All Natural work together again?”
CAPITAL D: “Oh, yeah. We’re still doing stuff. ‘Writer’s Block (The Movie)’ is just something I wanted to do. It was not a farewell to All Natural or anything.”

T. JONES: “Your collabo with Lone Catalysts on ‘Renaissance’ is one of my favorite tracks. How did you hook up with Lone Catalysts and what was that collaboration like?”
CAPITAL D: “I met them at a thing called Scribble Jam. It was like an annual hip-hop thing going on in Cincinnati. We were watching a breaking battle. I was standing right behind J. Sands and we started talking. He was for one crew and I was for the other crew and we just started to go back and forth. Then, I met J. Rawls. They gave me the first Lone Catalysts album (‘Hip Hop’). I thought it was cool. When they came to Chicago to do a show, we just hooked up.”

T. JONES: “You are a very spiritual person. How has God changed your view towards making music?”
CAPITAL D: “Completely. I reverted to Islam 2 years ago. Initially, I didn’t think that I would be able to do music because there are different opinions on the role of music… whether or not it is forbidden, whether one can or cannot do it. Initially, I just stopped doing it all together for the first 9 months to a year after I reverted to Islam. From this point, I believe you can do good things with music. I believe you can do positive things to reach people through music. Being Muslim forces me to do music in a positive way. On some of the All Natural albums, I thought they were good but some of the songs were kind of empty. Being Muslim forces me to make a statement with the music I am making now.”

T.JONES: “What inspired you to convert to the Muslim religion?”
CAPITAL D: “Reading the Qur’an. I actually read the Qur’an about 10 years ago after I read the autobiography of Malcom X at a time when I was raised Catholic. When I was reading it, it rung true to me but at that point in my life, I did not want any discipline. I couldn’t discipline myself. I stopped reading it. About 4 years ago, I met my wife who is Muslim. We were getting to the basis of our religions and she suggested that I read the Qur’an just to read it. When I read it, I didn’t find any flaws in it and I thought that this is what I have to do. I stopped doing music all together.”

T.JONES: “Since you were raised on Catholicism, how did your parents accept your new faith (your conversion)?”
CAPITAL D: “For my mother, it was more of a surprise than it was for my father…. even though I have more religious conversations with my mother. When I stopped practicing Catholicism, we would always have religious conversations. She’s more religious than my father is. My father believes in God but not one organized religion. My mother took it hard at first but she did understand what I believed. It didn’t come totally out of the blue for her. She was questioning what Islam was. Most people don’t know what it is.”

T.JONES: “Do you have advice for someone who is interested in converting to Islam?”
CAPITAL D: “Read the Qur’an. I don’t think that anyone can tell you what Islam is... myself, the media, or people who are well-versed in religion. I think people should just read the Qur’an with an open mind and it will reach you.”

T. JONES: “Who would you like to work with that you did not work with yet?”
CAPITAL D: “I would like to work with Mos Def.”

T. JONES: “What kind of kid were you? Were you a good kid or a bad kid?”
CAPITAL D:  “I was a mischievous kid but I wasn’t a bad kid that was being picked up by the police. I was born in the city but kind of raised in the suburbs so there was only so much trouble that I could really get in. I was the only boy in my family with 3 girls. I went out of my way to cause a little ruckus here and there but I would never do anything that would cause me to get arrested.”

T.JONES: “What was it like growing up in Chicago?”
CAPITAL D: “Chicago is weird. Chicago is really segregated but I love Chicago. At the same time, it has it flaws. It has a second city mentality that feels like it is the stepson of the states. For a city, it has a chip on its shoulder, which could be a really good thing or a real bad thing. It’s really one of the most segregated cities in the states. We have a wide diversity of people here but at the same time, people don’t mix. It’s strange in that way.”

T.JONES: “Did Mayor Daly have anything to do with that or did it go on way before that?”
CAPITAL D: “I think it went on way before that. Not this Mayor Daly but his father had a lot to do with that. During the Democratic Convention in the 60’s, they cracked a lot of skulls and unleashed the police on protesters. His father ran Chicago like a machine. He had a grip on the city for years. A lot of his power came from gangs, Irish gangs. There was a gang mentality in Chicago. That’s the way it was run. Even now, it’s the same stratified mentality where there are Irish gangs, Polish gangs, Black gangs, Latin gangs. That was just the way the power is divided in Chicago even more so in other places. That comes from the older Mayor Daly.”

T.JONES: “What was the last incident of racism that you have experienced?”
CAPITAL D: “I can’t think of the last one. I really think that I experience it everyday or every other day or once a week. You know, something small where whether it’s a look or someone grabbing their purse. Things like that which are particularly racially based. My wife is from England but she is Pakistani. We encounter racism all the time.”

T. JONES: “Where were you during the Sept. 11th World Trade Center Terrorist attack? How do you think it will affect hip-hop?”
CAPITAL D: “I was at law school in Champagne, Illinois. I pretty much just sat and watched TV the whole day. I found out about it in class. I would have thought that it would make people just a little more serious about certain things. I would have thought that some of that ‘live forever’, carefree/careless, money, money money themes would be thought about a little more. From what I hear, I don’t see that has changed at all.”

T.JONES: “What kind of law are you studying?”
CAPITAL D: “Human rights law or employment law.”

T. JONES: “Abortion – Pro-choice or pro-life?”
CAPITAL D: “I’m anti-abortion. I’ll put it like that.”

T. JONES: “Death Penalty: For or against?”
CAPITAL D: “I’m for it.”

T. JONES: “What made you start the indie record label, All Natural Inc.? How did you start it?”
CAPITAL D: “I used to work for Third World Press, an independently run black owned book publishing company. It was a small press but they did incredible stuff. They put out all of the works of Gwendolyn Brooks and other really powerful black writers. It was a small thing run out of the Southside of Chicago and it gave me the idea that I could do really important stuff that is worthwhile and own my own business. I didn’t have to be apart of the mainstream. I can be under the radar and still have a thriving business.”

T.JONES: “Is All Natural Inc. doing well? Is it turning a profit in this bad economy?” 
CAPITAL D: “Actually, yeah. I don’t handle the books anymore. When I first started to think that I wasn’t going to do anymore rhyming, I used to do all of the books for All Natural. Now, Tone does that. He knows a lot more about finances that I do. We are still there. We’re not raking it in. We never were but we are making the money back off the things we put out.”

T.JONES: “In your opinion, what is the one major mistake you made in your career or in the business?”
CAPITAL D: “Not reverting to Islam sooner. I wish that I had been more serious about things. I think I wasted a lot of songs, some time, wasted my voice for about two albums. I just don’t think that I’ve been a positive influence.”

T.JONES: “How have the people at All Natural (the label and the group) responded to your faith is Islam?”
CAPITAL D: “Tony has always been a good friend before and beyond All Natural. His mother is a Deacon. He’s not the most religious person but at the same time, he understands religion and understands how important it can be to someone. He was very open. He welcomed it even though he was a little hurt that I was going to stop doing music. He did accept it because of his background and because he’s a good friend.”

T. JONES: “After you became a Muslim, many people thought you would never emcee again. What made you pick up the mic again?”
CAPITAL D: “When I first reverted to Islam, I asked ‘What is the true nature of music and how is it viewed inside of Islam?’ I didn’t research how Islam viewed music before I reverted. I didn’t say that I was going to revert if I continue to do music. I believed that I had to revert and then, come what may. It was just me studying the role and nature of music and how it’s viewed in Islam. Once I had a better understanding, I believed that I could continue to emcee but I had to be more conscience of what I had to say.”

T. JONES: “On the new lip, there are 2 tracks called ‘Du’a’. [i.e. ‘Du’a (Deen’s List)’ & ‘Du’a (Stevie Wonder)’]. What does the word ‘Du’a’? mean?”
CAPITAL D: “It means ‘prayer’. They are 2 prayers. Similar to Catholicism, after you pray, you extend blessings to other people. You evoke other people and ask god to extend blessings to them.”

T.JONES: “The song ‘Du’a (Stevie Wonder)’ is very sad since it is about a heroin addict.”
CAPITAL D: “That one is based on someone that I know who is a friend of mine. He’s actually doing well.”

T. JONES: “Did you make a pilgrimage to Mecca?”
CAPITAL D: “No but I am planning on it, God willing.”

T.JONES: “What are some of the major misconception do you think people have about you?”
CAPITAL D: “I don’t know. I think when All Natural first came out with ‘No Additives, No Preservatives’, people thought that the album was better than it actually was. I think people had a misconception that I was a better emcee than I actually am. With ‘Second Nature’, we weren’t the new group so people were trying to find flaws or things that were wrong with the LP. I think some people try to put you in a box when they don’t know you. If there is any misconception, I think people tend to make me into a one-dimensional person because of the things they hear that I have done or said. Some of those songs are seven years old and people base me on those songs. Any person or emcee is going to be more than whatever art they have created. Some songs are even done years and years before the actual album is released. It may be 3 years between albums but it may be 7 years between some of the songs. Even then, an emcee may not say what they really want to say in their first album. They may never really get to say what they want to say. People never really get a full picture.”

T.JONES: “You did some production too. Do you have a favorite drum programming tool or drum machine?”
CAPITAL D: “I use the Ikai 50.”

T.JONES: “When you do a song, do you go into the studio with pre-written lyrics and pre-produced beats or do you let things happen inside the studio itself at that time?”
CAPITAL D: “Typically, we do most of our stuff before we get into the studio. Some things we have done inside the studio right there at that time. Like Panik of The Molemen will come to the studio with a beat and lay it down. I’ll write something real quick. That’s what we did for ‘Writer’s Block Part II’. That was done in the studio. But, for the most part, I like to be able to truly get into the beat and take time to write something specific.”

T. JONES: “Word association time… I’m going to say an emcee or a group and you say the first word that pops in your head, ok? So, if I said ‘Chuck D’, you may say ‘Revolutionary’”
T. JONES: “Common”
CAPITAL D: “New York. (laughs). Just the rap on him because he moved to New York.”
T. JONES: “Big L”
CAPITAL D: “Promise.”
T. JONES: “Jay-Z”
CAPITAL D: “Wasted Talent”
T. JONES: “Eminem”
CAPITAL D: “Slick.”
T. JONES: “Q-Tip”
CAPITAL D: “Hope.”
T. JONES: “Phife Dawg”
CAPITAL D: “Down to Earth.”
T. JONES: “Ol Dirty Bastard”
CAPITAL D: “Why!?!?! (laughs).”
T. JONES: “Gil Scott-Heron”
CAPITAL D: “60’s.”

T.JONES: “What advice can you give to up and coming DJs and producers trying to get into the music industry?”
CAPITAL D: “Have another outlet. Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket. Use music to get you from point A to point B but at the same time, don’t focus your whole life around this industry because you need to make sure that you have another outlet.”

T.JONES: “You wrote a book titled ‘Fresh Air’. Tell us about it. What inspired you to write it and will you write another one?”
CAPITAL D: “It was a book of essays. The thing that drew me into hip-hop was the writing more so than the music. I always loved to write. First, I wanted to make sure to put the lyrics with the album because a lot of emcees didn’t do that. Then, I thought that I have a lot of things that I want to get out. If I don’t put it out with this album, it probably will never come out. So, I put this book out. It was a nice little selling tool for the album but at the same time, it was a way to get some of my ideas out to people who don’t buy books. People who buy the album will go ahead and read the book because they got it since it came with the album."

T. JONES: “What can we expect from Capital D in the future?”
CAPITAL D: “Hopefully, more books. I’m actually working on another album called ‘The Straight Path’. It’s another solo album. It’s not strictly Molemen but they are doing a lot of the beats. Doug Infinite is doing a couple of beats and I’m doing pretty much the rest. The ‘Writer’s Block (The Movie)’ album came out of the blue. This album that I’m working on now called ‘The Straight Path’, has always been planned. I was always going to do a solo album that was more political than the All Natural stuff. I’ve been working on ‘The Straight Path’ for a long time. So, I’m working on this new album ‘The Straight Path’ and then, we are going to make the next All Natural album.”

T.JONES: “You are a true renaissance man. You are an author, a producer, an emcee, owner of the All Natural Inc. record label and a student at law school. How the hell do you find time to do all of this?”
CAPITAL D: “I really enjoy my work. I don’t go clubbing anymore. Hip-hop-wise, I don’t do a lot of the things that used to take up most of my time. It used to be that even in a business sense, I found it necessary to go to clubs just to see what people were listening to. I don’t feel the need to do that anymore. Those 3 hours that I used to spend at the club are now being spent either at my crib, with my wife, or writing.”

T.JONES: “How did you meet your wife?”
CAPITAL D: “We actually met in England. All Natural were over there doing some shows. It was the last show we did for the first time we went to England. I actually tried to get her attention a couple of times but she wasn’t feeling me at all. When I was leaving, Tony, All Star from the Daily Planet and us couldn’t all fit the taxi especially since Tony had all this stuff. So, I told them to ‘go ahead’ and they left. I was waiting on the next taxi. Just when the taxi was pulling up, she came out. I seized the moment and struck up a conversation. It’s all history from there.”
 
T. JONES: “What do you want on your epitaph? (Your gravestone)?”
CAPITAL D: “This brother was searching. He searched and tried to be a good person, a good Muslim and continued to search.”

T. JONES: “Do you have any last words for the people who will be reading this?
CAPITAL D: “Thanks and I hope you enjoy the album. I hope that you find something in the album that reaches you and makes you a better person.”

( Capital D's new solo album "Writer's Block (The Movie)" by Capital D & The Molemn is out NOW!!! )

You can check out CAPITAL D, his group All Natural and his other projects at
http://www.allnaturalhiphop.com

THANK YOU CAPITAL D!!!!

-Todd E. Jones aka The New Jeru Poet