Rhymefest Finds His Father
He ghostwrote Kanye West‘s hits and beat Eminem in a rap battle, but his biggest accomplishment was saving his dad
Che “Rhymefest” Smith is the greatest rapper that you’ve never heard of. He’s written some of the biggest hits in hip-hop, such as Kanye West’s “Jesus Walks” and “New Slaves”— the former which he received a Grammy for, the latter which was nominated for one— and worked regularly as a collaborator with West. He also wrote on Common and John Legend’s 2015 theme to Selma, “Glory,” a track that snagged both Golden Globe and Academy Awards. Early on, he recorded an album called Blue Collar for Mark Ronson’s Allido Records imprint in 2006, collaborating with Kanye on the lead single “Brand New.” Oh, and he bested Eminem in a rap battle at Scribble Jam in 1997.
With such an impressive resume, it’s a wonder that Rhymefest isn’t a household name. Despite his works being been bestowed with all manner of fancy, golden statues, his solo career hasn’t ascended as rapidly as his peers, to say the least. So ‘Fest’s next project was much more personal: a Showtime documentary film in which he attempts to reunite with his estranged father. In My Father’s House finds Smith purchasing his father’s childhood home and eventually venturing out to find the man himself. What he found was not easy to swallow, as his dad was homeless and battling alcoholism. But reuniting has changed both he and father’s lives forever. Cuepoint spoke with Rhymefest about the film and explored how we can break the cycle of lost parentage for future generations.
So let’s talk about the film. Your father left at an early age. What are those early memories of him like?
Well, as a child all you understand is, “Is this person nice to me or not?” My father was nice to me, but I saw him so few times that in my memories that he’s kind of like a distant cousin more than a father.
Did he ever shed any light on where he went or why he left? We know that he was homeless and everything, but did he ever elaborate on what he was doing before he became homeless or sort of a rolling stone?
I wouldn’t consider my father a rolling stone. When you roll off the cliff and fall on the ground, you aren’t really rolling anymore. Like I said in the film, my father was struggling as a whole. A rolling stone is hustling from this place to that place, trying to make something work. I fear that if I hadn’t had found him, that in six years he’d be dead. He was on his way out. On terms of shedding light on where he was or what happened, I just think that my father didn’t quite have the maturity and mental capacity at that time. Sometimes we don’t take into account as children — or as adults — that circumstances of life are not always like what you see on TV or a sitcom. He had the baby, but just couldn’t take care of one.
That reminds me, in the film there’s that scene when a social worker says something to the extent of that the age you start abusing drugs or alcohol, your maturity level stops developing at that point. Do you agree with that statement?
That’s not whether you agree with that or not, that’s a scientific fact. I think we have trouble accepting that as a scientific fact because that tells us a lot about ourselves. People don’t want to agree with things that expose truths about where they may be in their lives or why. It’s interesting to me. I don’t think that I am so much more intelligent than the average person, but people are like “Oh man, Rhymefest, you’re so intelligent. You’re so this, you’re so that.” But I never had a drink of alcohol until I was about 24. I never smoked marijuana until about 24. I was always trying to rhyme and move forward. I was curious about things. It’s scientific fact that your brain is not mentally prepared to handle that stuff until you are in your 20s.
So what made you want to buy your father’s house and then eventually go and find him?
All my life, I lived in Chicago and would ride past his block and his home and think about the small amount of time that he spent there. Or I would think about my mother’s words, “Your father grew up there.” There was always a connection to the house, even though I did not know much about it. I wanted a piece of my heritage, I wanted a piece of my family history. I wanted to be able to give that to my children. I didn’t want to have to start all over again with a legacy.
When you finally met again, what was that feeling like? Did you notice similarities in the way you acted or looked?
When we first saw each other again, the one word I could use to describe the feeling is “awkward.” Being hugged by a homeless man that you barely know, that resembles a father that you may have known in times past? I don’t know who this person is. I know what he smells like and looks like right now in his homelessness. Having to be the adult… Usually when we think about parents, parents are the ones in control, even when you’re grown. In this whole process, I had to be the authority. So I was playing everything by ear. It was awkward being the patriarch of my family, even though it was my father.
You mention in the film that you carried a lot of anger or resentment around inside. Did finding him put some of those things to rest?
No. If you look at the film, it was put to rest in the studio session. I didn’t even know I was being hard on him. I looked at the movie, where I just kind of let it all out on him that one day. Number one, before I even found my father, I forgave him. You can’t even begin a journey like this without love or forgiveness in the forefront. But number two, the things that most kids have with most parents that they haven’t met or seen are questions. And after the questions are answered or not answered, that’s when I think the child can put it to rest. After that day that I gave him all of those questions: Why weren’t you there? What the hell? Why didn’t you care? Why didn’t you come to see me at least once? What couldn’t you keep a job? Why couldn’t you send money? Once you are able to ask those questions — whether they are answered or not — your heart can put it to rest. Because you know that they’ve heard you.
Did your mother try to give you some of those answers, yet you had to hear it from him?
No, because a lot of times, if the woman doesn’t have contact with the guy, she doesn’t have the answers either. A lot times, when it comes to parents, those questions can only be answered by the one who committed the offense.
Your father battles alcoholism in the film. How are things with that now and how is your relationship now?
My father was living with me, but my mother just came down today to pick him up and he moved down to Indianapolis with her. She’s going to help get him together and things like that. Alcohol is not an issue, because he’s with us every day. We control the finances, we control the diet. There’s no alcohol for him. What I find is that it’s not even killing him. He’s not going through crazy withdrawals or anything. Looking back, he simply drank alcohol in order to calm the pain of being on the street. Now that he’s not on the street, it is what it is.
It’s said in the film that this is a cycle that repeats itself each generation. What do you think is the answer to breaking that chain for future generations?
Man, don’t have babies with people that you don’t want to be with! We have to figure out how to have a better process of courting and relationships. Perceptions are based off of what the media pushes. “Oooh, she got a big ol’ ass, and because of that I’m about to hit that! Oops, she got pregnant!” Or, “Ooooh, he’s got money! Ooooh, he’s cute!” In America, we need to find a better way of finding partners or a more sustainable way having relationships. The whole thing around relationships — commercially — is centered around sex. But more and more often, people that are having sex with each other don’t want to be together. Now you could say that we’re never going to solve that, so how do we solve the fatherless home problem? I would also say that politicians have to talk more about families. We’re talking about Black Lives Matter, we’re talking about criminal justice reform. What about family reform? I feel like there is no political movement centered around family structure. We need a political movement to keep families together in America.
My parents are products of the 40s and 50s, so I think for their generation, sex education was a taboo thing to talk about with their children. But I think that we are coming out of that now that sex has become mainstream. Do you think it is still a problem that parents are not educating their children about how to protect themselves these days?
Heck yeah. And parents are having more sex than ever. Mom might be having more sex than the kids. But everybody is so distracted while things get more and more out of control. As families we have to do something to remove the distractions of society.
This reminds me, the way hip-hop has been the last ten to twenty years has been less politically-minded, less conscious than when we were coming up in the 80s and early 90s. It feels like right now we are finally getting to a point in which artists are not afraid to speak about these things. There was a long period of time where artists could say nothing important on a record because it was like they were afraid of losing endorsements or radio spins or whatever. What are your feelings on that?
We’re at a point where radio doesn’t even matter anymore. People get their information from so many different sources that one source is not controlling the information, and therefore controlling what it is that you can say on that forum. For a long time, terrestrial radio controlled whether an artist was successful or not. Terrestrial radio would say “We don’t want no political message or social message. But we do want to sell stuff, so you can talk about rims and drinks and clubs , if you’re black.” But you can’t talk about progressiveness. But now there are multiple platforms for artists to use and they are taking their careers into their own hands. And that’s a good thing.
The bad thing is that the multiple platforms also means that when you look at Pandora or Spotify, for people like me who write, you aren’t going to get paid what you were getting paid. The money was in the sale of the album. So you have to do music basically as a commercial for whatever it is you are trying to sell.
Do you think in essence that because the major labels and radio have force-fed so much negativity in hip-hop for so many years that it has inadvertently affected the way that this generation sees things?
Yeah, in so many ways. But we’re getting back to balance. Like when I was coming up, I loved Too $hort and N.W.A and all that, but I also liked Big Daddy Kane, Public Enemy, Brand Nubian, Biz Markie. There was balance in my music diet. Now I like Kendrick Lamar, Run The Jewels and J. Cole, but I also love Migos and I also love Future. So I think we’re getting back to a proper hip-hop diet.
Let’s move on to your own music. You mentioned in the film that your debut album, Blue Collar, flopped. What do you attribute that to?
I hate blaming any other entities or anything. Ultimately, we are all responsible for our own careers and our own paths. It’s true, I was on an r&b label, known for making Whitney Houston and Alicia Keys big. I wasn’t on a label known for promoting hip-hop. The majority of what you see in hip-hop isn’t about if it’s good or bad, it’s about how it’s marketed. How is it brought to an audience? My album Blue Collar was a classic by many standards and critically acclaimed. But it wasn’t brought to the audience in a palatable way that was attractive. Moving forward, I’ve learned a lot. Last year I was nominated for “New Slaves,” writing for Kanye. This year I won a Grammy for writing with Common for “Glory.” So I know how to write the music, the music isn’t the issue. But I’m done with that part, hiding in the shadows of other artists and empowering people with platforms. I’m the one that lives in Chicago on the south side. I’m the one that works with the kids and the new generation. I’m the one that writes the songs that makes the world sing, so I’m going to be the one that sings them. So whatever happens, happens. But I know and the people around me know, that if you like a lot of that other stuff you’ve been hearing, you love Rhymefest.
Speaking of Kanye, you Tweeted that you feel that he needs spiritual and mental help. What do you think is “wrong” with him?
Well, I can’t really speak on what exactly is wrong with a person. Kanye is my brother, he’s my friend. But I didn’t say anything that the world can’t already see. I want him to be at peace. I want him to be successful. But success and peace are not always what the world thinks they are. I’m in a very peaceful time in my life, I’ve got the film out, I’ve got new music coming this summer with an album called Push The World. I’m very happy and I want that for all of my friends. When I made that comment, it wasn’t to berate him. Some people put that out there like I was trying to dis Kanye. I wasn’t dissing Kanye. It was an act of friendship and brotherhood, to pray for peace for your brother. I don’t know what the problem is, but obvious there is one.
Did you quit as Kanye’s ghostwriter?
I don’t refer to myself as a ghostwriter. I’m a collaborator. I don’t sit in a room and write somebody raps. “Here go your raps!” We all sit together and collaborate. But if you look at the songs that I’ve been a part of, whether it be “Jesus Walks,” whether it be “Glory,” whether it be “New Slaves,” that’s what I’m on. That’s the path that I’m. That’s the type of music I want to do.
And what can you tell us about the new album, Push The World?
We’re bringing the best of the best together. We have a song called “Mastermind,” with Common and Jesse Jackson on the same song, rapping. We have a joint with Mark Ronson, a joint with No I.D., I’m trying to get Killer Mike in the studio. Xzibit is actually in town shooting for Empire, so we’re going to get him in the studio. Right now if you look at hip-hop, everyone is talking about movements like black power, my thing is that it is far more important to bring together not just black people, but the world. Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump really aren’t that different. They’re both two extremes of people that feel that government has gone too far. What if we could bring those extremes of people to some common ground? That’s why Push The World is. The real problem ain’t the people, the real problem is the system.
How can people get involved and take action?
We do a program called Donda’s House, where we have a premiere arts program. I teach creative writing, we teach studio etiquette. People come in and visit — A&R’s, artists, Big Sean came though, Killer Mike came through, No I.D came through. We give lectures and teach kids through our programs. You can go to DondasHouseInc.org for more information.
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