So how are you doing man?

Zero Star: Ah shoot man, I'm out the door. My man came and got me, what's up with you?

We probably asked you some of these questions before but we should give a quick refresher for people who don't know you yet. You ended up on Blueprint's Weightless label, how'd that happen and what your career like before that happened?

Zero Star: Around 03-04 I really started doing the recording thing and I was in another group with this cat. Long story short we recorded an EP and then me and him kind of went our separate ways. I dropped my Problem Child EP which got me a pretty good buzz going and people were receiving it well. It got a lot of good reviews and stuff like that. I was basically doing shit myself and there really wasn't anyone to come co-sign me or try to put me on or whatever. I was setting up my own shows, pressing up my own CD's and doing that whole thing.

I remember Blueprint from back in the day from just being around the local scene of like 98-99. He came to one of my shows because I was killing the shows and I was consistently getting like 150-200 people out. So for a cat that had no following I was actually doing alright. I was getting a lot of write ups in the paper. So he invited me to do a song one day, then I hit him up and that song ended up being "Train of Thought". This is actually one of the songs on my LP. That's our first song we recorded. We did a few more songs here and there sporadically. When he was around and wasn't touring. So when he got back from touring in the summer I was over there working on my LP, so we went through the thing and we had like 5-6 songs already without even really knowing it. Basically he hit me up a couple of days later and was like, "Yo how would you feel about being down with Weightless" and I mean man that shit made sense. We had been hanging out a lot so it wasn't really anything different from what we were already doing. Basically that's how it pretty much came about.

Your album Forever's Never Really That Long has been out for about a year now, how'd you feel about the reception? Do you think it's gotten enough attention outside of the local Columbus scene?

Zero Star: I mean yes and no. Rap Reviews gave me like a 9 out of 10 or something like that. It was in Urb Magazine and I think it got a pretty good review so I mean it did well. It did some of what I wanted it to do but I got caught in some shit and went to jail for like 3 months. So I was in jail from like January to April and I missed out on a lot of time as far as that goes. I missed out on a lot of tour opportunities and things like that. It could've been better and I think it still will be. It was just an unfortunate situation that was out of my hands you know? But you know I'm out now and I'm trying to hit the ground running. We've got the T-Shirts on sale and stuff, a lot of changes going on over at Weightless. I'm a patient cat, I wasn't expecting to sell 50 thousand straight out the gate so I'm not really tripping.

Are you satisfied with how Blueprint and the label have handled it, and will you be with them for your next project?

Zero Star: Yeah, I'll still be with them for the next project. Let's just say there were some people that didn't hold up there end of the bargain at no fault of Blueprint. That's all getting straightened out. I think people will see the difference in the projects as far as stability and things like that. Just cause there were some things going on behind the scenes nobody really knew about. Everyone has to step it up more, but I think with the upcoming stuff that Weightless is doing you are definitely going to see it.

How would you convince someone who has never heard of Zero Star to go check your album right now?

Zero Star: That's what the mixtape is for man. I'm giving it to them for free. It's hard to get people to want to go out and check out some dude they never heard of. It's not 1995-96 no more, everybody raps, everybody has a hustle, so you can't really expect for people to go off the strength anymore. I don't expect that, that's why I'm doing this online mixtape. Just to let people know hey I'm still here and I don't this rhyming shit for the sport of it. I love this shit. It's something I do so to put out music is nothing. I think with the mixtape it will let people know a little bit of what I'm about. So to me that's a way I know to get people interested if you don't have a big co-sign is to give them something free first. There's a lot of free shit on the web as it is, so if you aren't giving shit out for free, you know?

So what's up with the mixtape? Can you tell us a little more about it?

Zero Star: I think I'm going to call it Take'em or Erase'em: The MP3 Mixtape. It's a collection of songs I've done recently, some of them that maybe didn't make the LP. A bunch of freestyles. It ain't got no DJ shouting all over it. It's literally like a bunch of songs in mp3 format. So my whole thing is like I don't even really give a fuck, it's free. You can't complain, ou can take them and put them in your Ipod or whatever or you can fucking erase them [laughs]. It really is what it is. I definitely think people are going to like it but it's nothing I went hard into. I'm always recording anyways so why not put out something in the meantime? I have tons of songs laying around so why not get those things out and let people hear them?

I can't front, I think the whole "MP3 mixtape" angle is dope. I've only seen them advertised as mixtapes online.

Zero Star: I mean that's all it is man. You can't try to make it more than what it is. I'm not trying to act like, "Yo, it's my street album!". Nah man it's a bunch of MP3's that's going to show up on your Itunes.

[Laughs] What kind of music will be included? Will it have freestyles over other people's beats and that kind of thing?

Zero Star: There are a lot of original songs and a lot of typical freestyles like me going over other beats. It's not one of those things where I'm going over the latest beats on the radio. I'm about to go over the Raekwon "Criminology" joint so you know its all classic beats. It's a good mixture. I got production with Blueprint on there, DJ Przm, Ree-Dic and this local cat named Grim. I think that's it, I hope I'm not forgetting anybody.

How many songs did you record specifically for it?

Zero Star: Some of them were going to make the LP but for whatever reason we didn't use them. Some of them are just songs I did and some of them are recent ideas I've had. It's a mixture of all three.

Do you perform a lot locally and have you had a chance to travel out of state to rock any shows yet?

Zero Star: I really don't do a lot of shows anymore locally just because when I was getting on I was taking any and every show just to get heard. Now I feel pretty comfortable with where I'm at and where my status is locally. I'm doing a New Years show with Blueprint, Envelope which is the other label mat and Eyedea and Abilities out of Rhymesayers. It'll be probably the first show I did in Columbus since the summer. In Columbus there isn't a lot of quality control and there's a lot of garbage out there man. We're trying to have it where when we do a show or performance people are like, "Oh Shit, I haven't seem dude in months let me go check it out." Not one of those things where it's like, "Shit, I just seen him the last two days." Cause you got like five shows, you know what I mean? I did a few shows outside of Columbus and like I said the whole thing with me being away for like three months I missed out on that last tour. So I haven't really gotten a chance to get out like I wanted to but that will be coming, so I'm not worried about that too much. I do plan on getting out it was just an unfortunate situation. I'll be out there in the future.

Your good friend DJ Przm passed away earlier this year and you've been recording freestyles in his memory. How'd you and Przm meet?

Zero Star: Man, we all go back since like 98-99 when we were all just really trying to build the scene here. Przm was doing a lot of stuff and he was the man first. He was like one of the top cats because he had the equipment, he had the dope beats and he had pretty much all the illest emcees coming to him. At that time I was maybe 15-16 so my skills weren't anywhere near thinking about approaching a cat like that or anyone for that matter. It was one of them things where we were out at the famous Hip Hop night on Sunday that Przm helped hold down for six years. Just being there, being hungry in ciphers, doing open mics and shit like that.

After I started making music with my old group we started doing music with Ree-Dic originally because we couldn't get anyone else to record us. After we did a couple of shows we started getting a little buzz so Przm was like, "Yeah, I'll shoot you guys a couple of beats". That actually turned into an EP. His equipment crashed and we lost the whole EP. Pretty much after that me and Przm did stuff here and there. He was just one of them dudes even outside of the music, like he had a lot of doctor appointments. I would be like one of the only people that would take him to the hospital, pick him up, go pick his medicine up and shit like that. So it's like beyond music at that point. Like I said I knew him since the late 90's but you could say like in 03-04 is when me and Przm really started messing around talking, not just in passing. 

You've worked with him a lot in the past so it has to be a big loss on a musical level as well as personal.

Zero star: That's pretty much how I am with pretty much all the cats I work with man. I'm not big on that, "I don't know you from a can of paint but lets collab". That ain't really my thing. Like I said earlier Blueprint and I were already friends hanging out and kicking it. We were just doing what  we were doing and it was about just putting a title on it. I've known Ree-Dic for forever and a day, that's a real good friend of mine. It's always beyond music with me for the most part.

A lot of artists are big self-promoters and throw their music in your face, but you seem more nonchalant about it. Is that just your personality and how seriously do you take music as a career?

Zero Star: I take it extremely seriously as a career. I don't feel the need I have to constantly tell people to check me out. Check my music out! Check me out! I think if you do your thing the music speaks for itself. Kind of like when I do those blogs, I just look at it from the position of a fan, what do I want to know. I want to know what the hell you're like as a person, what you do on a day to day basis. The music shit is cool, I'm going to listen to that anyway. So it's like one of those things where you get to connect with the fans and people a little bit more. It's one of the advantages of being an independent artist. You can't go up to Jay-z and shake his hand. [Laughs] As much as you might feel "Dead Presidents" or that song that really just clicked you can't connect with him because he's too big. It's nothing to see me or Blueprint out walking the streets or whatever. It's not like that I don't like to self promote, I just feel like once I put it out I'm going to tell you about it then after that the music should speak for itself ideally.

You've told us that you don't like how some of the artists approach our blog section, so now is your chance to call people out and tell them how it's done.

Zero Star: [Laughs] Oh man, it's not like I got a problem with any of them cats personally. I'm just saying from the perspective of the fan and me being a fan of this shit. Though I do it I'm still a fan. My whole thing is when I read a blog and it just like, "I did two weeks on the road" or "Touring is not what it seems like". Everybody says that, that's not telling me anything. Give me a funny story of when you went to Taco Bell. I'm a huge fan of Phonte and Little Brother's blogs, like dude talks about music a little bit but dude is always saying some funny shit. That makes me want to check for him even more. Its like he makes good music and he's funny and he seems like a dude I can go kick it with, you know? It's not always constantly, "I got this coming out! Check my group and my sub group, I'm doing a side project. You don't have to push that all the time man. That's just my personal opinion man. No disrespect to none of them dudes that send in their bi-weekly blogs or however often they send them in. I just tend to take a different approach. I'd like to think the approach I take, people appreciate it more than the constant self promotion, you know?

You have some funny ass blogs, were you always the funny kid in school? What kind of kid were you growing up?

Zero Star: Growing up that's all we did is crack jokes a lot. We liked to laugh a lot so there's always something to laugh at. Like you getting kicked out of basketball practice or out of class. I didn't consider myself funny because everyone I was with that was pretty much how we were. It wasn't till later down the line when I was like, "Maybe I'm a pretty funny dude" [Laughs]. We weren't purposely trying to do things we were just tripping.

I had to ask man. I read your one blog but a cheetah? Well I can't front I thought I could take a pitbull for like a second. [Laughs]

Zero Star: [Laughs] I'm telling you man, I've had full fledged arguments with people about it. I really feel I can do it man. I mean I don't want to have to be in the position where I have to find out. I'm just saying if it came down to it, I think I could probably square up with a cheetah and be beasting.

Have you started working on your next album yet and is there anything you can tell us about it?

Zero Star: The next album I really haven't put a lot of thought to it. I do have some general ideas and things I want to do, not with songs but more so with skit ideas. The music aspect will come to me when it's supposed to come. I don't ever try to rush that shit when it's time it's time. It's also one of those things, being on a label you got to wait your turn. I dropped in the end of 06 and Envelope is about to come out with his, so it's his turn and I understand that. I don't have any ideas for titles or anything like that. It's real early as far as that goes. One thing I can tell you is it will be coming. I'm not one of them guys that drops and then you don't hear from him for five years. It's going to be there.

You told us you'd really like to work with Black Milk. Are there any other artists or producers on your wish list?

Zero Star: I said that? I mean I would shoot. As far as emcees I'd like to work with Elzhi, Slum Village, I like Freeway right now. Producers like Kev Brown, you know the usuals, DJ Premier, Pete Rock. I mean everyone would love that opportunity obviously. Other than that I can't think of anybody, House Shoes. I like him a lot.

Anything else you'd like to add?

The mixtape should be available hopefully sometime next week. It's going to be a free download the only time taken is downloading and listening to it. Thanks to the people tuning into the blogs and I'll see you soon.